Red vs Us vs Blue
by GuardianAthens
Summary: Two unlikely, ordinary fans of RvB have been given a dream gift and a trip they didn't exactly plan for. Now both of them are stranded in the 3rd season settings of RvB, and have no clue how to get home. They must not only keep themselves from dying, but also from altering anything as it plays through. This just may be harder then they thought seeing that they're being hunted.
1. You are now Entering Battle Creek

**_Why hello there again Red vs Blue Fandom! Been a while from me, huh? Remember me from the stories Noble Revival and Scarred for Life?_  
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**_Big Z: Stop it Jen, and move on_**

**_Right...well me and Big Z1776 are doing another collab for RvB, this time...well..._**

**_Big Z: We won't explain it, just read on and read the summary, okay?_**

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**Chapter One**

-Zach-

Okay, this is weird, was the first thought that came into my head once I put the supposed fake MJOLNIR helmet colored red on and was astounded to see something that I hadn't been seeing before I had put it on. Instead of a small Austin hotel room I'd booked for RTX I'd ended up seeing what appeared to be a granite cliff, covered in vines and dust.

But I was also seeing something really odd, it was a Heads Up Display, or HUD shining in the middle and in the corners of my vision. It was so cool, it looked like something out of Halo or something. The area was well shaded it seemed as the spot I was in was the middle of a box canyon, a small box canyon. There was a massive stone arch overhead, with trees reaching high towards it, giving a beautiful amount of shade to the extremely hot little canyon. There were rocks of all shapes and sizes in the…water? And it turned out I was standing in the middle of a creek with ice cold water separating two large metallic buildings colored…red and blue!

"Oh my God, I'm in Battle Creek!" I whispered to myself, "Oh shit! I'm in Battle Creek!"

I ducked down instinctively, my well trained Red vs. Blue fan mind churning out the information on who lived in this little battleground, the Flag Zealots! If I were caught here, I'd be dead, or would I? The suit of armor that I was clothed in was fake when I put it on, just fiberglass and a tight black under armor shirt and similar black tight pants that I wore when I went skiing. But if I wound up here after putting on my helmet then had my outfit changed and turned itself into the real deal? I looked down and saw the fiberglass shine was gone, instead replaced by a hard red metallic shine of brand new coat of paint on a hard shelled chest piece. I looked at the rest of myself and saw my legs and my arms were also armored in the real freaking thing. At first I thought I was seeing things, but when I tentatively tapped the plates I saw that my armor was hard as the metal it was supposed to be, and was without a doubt real.

But was I in a Red vs. Blue universe? Or was I in a Halo universe? But one sound changed that to Red vs. Blue, with a voice I was all too familiar with.

"Hello? Can anyone read me? Do I read you? Hello, somebody, anybody, nobody, okay."

"Sarge?" I whispered to myself, peaking over behind where I was standing and saw the figures of two people in the same armor I was in, one Red and one Blue, "Oh my God…"

-Jenn-

I have to say one single thing….just one, nothing big or anything, just a small thing bugging me ever since I got my pretty and shiny new MJOLNIR helmet, which now sits in my hands, the visor reflecting my rather goofy looking grin.

Thank you RTX!

I know that I wasn't the only one who got one of these puppies, but mine is Blue! BLUE! Blue team is a life I live forever. Going against what Sarge said: 'Go Blue or drown yourself in a Red's blood pile'. I don't know why that popped into my head, it just did. I blame my rather odd fascination with horror.

"Okay….okay, try it on! Try it on!"

As I gripped the sides, holding it over my head, I shivered. This was going to do it. Finally, I could actually complete my armor I so desperately craved to finish. As it slipped onto my head, I swore I thought I heard it hiss, like the oxygen line connected. This…wasn't real armor, right? It was fiberglass, all shiny and reflective that could attract online natives. As I stared through the visor for one moment, one heartbeat, it transformed by vision, a HUD somehow popping up. I blinked at the appearing symbols, mini map, and lock ons popping up, suddenly really confuzzled. Then the message of 'Connection complete' popped up.

That's not possible, but so isn't suddenly going from 0 to like 60 in a blink of an eye, sailing in the air with your damn HUD setting off alarms with annoying volume straight into your cranium. Screw you magical appearing HUD, screw you.

I should be panicking since I'm flying at a rather high speed toward the ground which did not look friendly since it seemed to be covered in rocks and very shallow water. Ground that looked familiar, like I was jumping off the cliff in Battle Creek and looking down at it, playing on Multiplayer….

What in exploding Freelancers was I doing in a Halo map?!

"Fuck meee" I let out, suddenly-more finally actually-flailing like I was a bird with wings that were tied together. As I sailed and sailed for what seemed like an eternity, I finally opened my eyes-when did I close them?-and noticed a Red coming rather fast at me, or was I coming fast at him? All I know is that when he shouted at me, I knew the voice, and almost screamed bloody murder at him. I should have, and I'm pretty sure I did.

"What in Sam Hell?!" Sarge. I was flying at 60 miles an hour at Sarge, who looked like he was going to flail at me too. I tried, rather unsuccessfully I might add, to brace myself for the obvious impact, but all I seemed to be able to control was my legs, and they seemed to curl up under my butt. So now I was flying at 60 miles an hour with my knees out first at the one person in Red in Red vs Blue I did not want to hit, because he owned a shotgun. He also seemed to fail to raise it, which I found rather odd. He raised his shotgun at challenges, and I thought flying people would be one.

The last thing that seemed to be on my mind before I hit him, sending us flying down the small creek, was that I was wearing fiberglass armor. That would probably not protect me from this hit.

-Zach-

As I was watching the Red and Blue yapping at one another I heard something else, someone screaming. I at first thought it was one of the Zealots which were here somewhere. But then I realized the noise was from above Sarge, and from a girl.

"Fuck meee!" came the frightened yell as I looked up and saw a blue figure falling right at Sarge. But Sarge had no clue as to what was about to strike him.

And strike him she did, with a massive crash a pillar of water shot up and Sarge seemed to collapse and the girl practically bounced up of the Red leader and fell back into the water. Each of them seemed dazed and confused as Sarge grasped around for his shotgun and the girl writhed in pain, grasping her abdomen. Caboose stared straight ahead for about two seconds before he jumped in surprise and looked back down to see the two of them.

"Hello other Blue person," Caboose said looking at the girl as I watched.

But before she got up to her feet, Sarge got to his feet and wobbled around. He would be sure to kill that Blue, and seeing as I was wearing Red and didn't exactly belong there, and I was guessing she didn't belong there, I ran towards Sarge as he looked around, holding his Shotgun backwards, still reeling from being landed on.

"Wait!" I yelled, but before I could say anything I had a Shotgun pointed right at me.

"Hold it right there!"

"Wait I'm…I'm Red, I'm a Red!" I babbled remembering I had on a suit of armor identical to Sarge's.

It seemed that I was roughly the same size as Sarge, but he was definitely stockier than I was. But I was at least a good two or three inches taller than him. Caboose seemed to be my height, but seemed bigger in every other respect.

"What's yer name and rank?" Sarge growled.

"Uh…Private Zach Scott," I stammered.

"Alright Private, why shouldn't I shoot this here Blue?" Sarge growled.

"Because you haven't shot me," Caboose said, "We're working together to find O'Malley, and they came to help."

"Yeah, we were sent by Command," I lied, trying to keep this Blue armored girl alive.

"What about Command?"

-Jenn-

I have to give it to this…..Zach Scotty guy for standing up to the man with a powerful gun but making up the lie about Command was just a bit too ballsy. I probably shouldn't be thinking about him anyway seeing that everything was going off in my HUD. Warning lights, updates on the armor, everything. Even the Friend or Foe tags were up, and the suit did NOT like the Reds, though it liked Caboose. Maybe the helmet really was a Blue Team one.

Finally the warning lights went off and I could move. Things did hurt; my entire abdomen, my face, my chest a bit. I slowly sat up, looking at the small little group now staring at me. Sarge, Caboose, and Scotty here. I think I'll just call him Scotty, it sounds cool.

"W-what about Command….again?" I asked, sitting up enough to finally take hold of the helmet and trying to take it off. It didn't budge, and all I could do was sit here, in this little river underneath me, trying to pull my helmet off like the idiot I was. Sure, I could live with wet pants…

Wait a moment, I didn't feel wet. I just felt heavy. Like the armor was real, or something. Yeah, okay don't freak out the armor is real now. It's real because I should have died with that fall. Nothing's broken, so to speak.

"We were sent by Command to help them, remember?" Scotty….okay, back to Zach because I'm going Star Trek now. Zach said through grinding teeth. He was a Red, but he was saving my ass right now. He tried to pull my helmet off again, finally clipping something behind my neck and pop it came off. My blonde hair, now shorter, came down over my face and shoulders.

"Air! Air okay…..right we came from Command to help you!" I chuckled back at him, placing the helmet in my lap. The world seemed different now without the HUD up all in my face. Oh please god, tell me he's lying out his ass to help me! I don't want to hold a façade of being from Command! Being just a random blue or Freelance could work but please not a Command person.

I shivered in my armor. The water must be leaking somewhere into my suit. Don't know why but I kept my helmet off. Nobody really moved or spoke, though Caboose hummed something, looking down into the small creek.

"Private Jenn Athens, just in case you're wondering…." I mumbled. My grip on my helmet tightened. Please believe me…

-Zach-

Okay, she believed me. Hopefully I can figure out a time to get the two of us alone and figure out what the fuck we were doing in Battle Creek with Sarge and Caboose. But for now, we had to act like a Red and Blue, here to help out Sarge and Caboose. Hopefully she knew as much about the Blood Gulch Chronicles as I did so that we could stay a step ahead and stay alive. But another thing we would need to do was not fuck up the timeline of Red vs Blue so that our advantage of knowing what would happen beforehand would not be lost. I had no training, I'm guessing she didn't either, so knowledge and our armor were the only things we could count on.

But when I saw that she was a girl, and a gorgeous girl at that, I hesitated a little bit, remembering how Blue Team always seemed to get the girls on their team. She had blonde hair, cut around her neck line. Her eyes were blue, go figure, blue armor and all. She slowly began getting to her feet, but had to sit down clutching at her gut.

"Yeah hey Blue, I guess your Command dropped you off or you fell, figures."

"Hehe, just like a Blue, can't even figure out how to drop off their soldiers properly. Or train them to take a fall properly. Whatcha say yer name was again Zach..."

"Oh..." I said, remembering that I had to keep up the mascaraed, "Private First Class Zach Scott."

"And you...uh...you're a..."

"A girl? What is it with men and not realizing girls can be soldiers?" she said out loud.

"Well...there really aren't that many girls in Red Army, Blue Army has a better outreach program to women or something. So we don't see many girls and it's sort of take it for granted," I said.

"Yeah I noticed, with Tex and..."

"So...Sarge...um orders?" I said, realizing what Jenn was about to do.

"Hey! Thanks for interrupting!" Jenn snapped, holding her hands on her hips, greatly offended.

"Can it you dirty she-Blue!" Sarge snapped, "He's right, we have a job to do. Me and Caboose will go this way, you two go the other way."

"Got it," Jenn hissed, walking off with her helmet under her arm, "Come on, Red."

She cast a look at me, that said she was very pissed off. But I guess I had that coming.

"Great, been here for five minutes and pissed off the first girl I meet!" I growled under my breath, "Fucking awesome."

As I went to follow Jenn towards the Red Base I turned around and saw Caboose and Sarge moving off but then I felt someone grab my arm and yank me forward. It was Jenn, she tugged me out of sight of Sarge and Caboose and then pinned me against a wall. She had turned from pissed off to slightly panicking in moments and looked back around the building to see if the coast was clear. However, before I could say a word she had started talking.

"Who are you really? You're obviously not a Red! I know what this place is and what is supposed to happen, and there was nothing in it about Sarge and Caboose meeting another Red besides the Zealots who are about to wake up!"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down...Jenn right?" I said taking her hands off my chest and standing up, "Listen I know what this place is too, I have no idea how we got here, or even how we could get back. My name, my real name is Zach Scott. I didn't want to make up a name."

"You're from the..."

"The real world? Yeah I am, I'm from Dallas Texas. You?"

"Purcellville Virginia, the damn craphole. I guess we're both in the same boat."

"What do we do now that we're here?" I asked, "I mean this is..."

But I stopped, allowing myself to strain to hear the strange noise of a trumpet being blasted across the canyon. It was familiar, and as it grew louder I began to pick out what it was. It was a Reveille, the very song that wakes up the Flag Zealots so they could fight to the death again and then repeat the process later. But Jenn heard it as well, and a great big grin flashed on her face and she instantly went towards the open part of the canyon. The Zealots had awoken, their cheers and the stamps of their feet running full tilt into their bunkers was loud and clear.

"I know what I'm gonna do buddy!" she said, running around the corner as I heard the whoops and cheers of the Zealots inside the Red Base.

-Jenn-

I almost totally forgot that the Zealots were basically a retardation of Halo Matchmaking! I could shoot at soldiers and kill them again and again and again! Yes! Screw Zach, the Reds, and the plotline! I was going to fight!

"Jenn, wait!"

"Screw you dirty Red! I'm going to fight, and there's nothing you can do!" I screamed back. Okay, I knew he wasn't a REAL Red, but might as well call him one. Didn't want to shout out his name everywhere. Now I had to hide before they came out, or I could hop over into Blue base! I wanted to touch the glorious flag that we had to protect. Before I could make it anywhere close however, well I found a pistol at least that's something, the Zealots surged out, guns and rockets flying which way and that way. I ducked behind a few rocks and found myself face to face with a Red.

"Get out of my face newb!" Oh god, the whiny voice! We both tried to raise our weapons, but before I could even think of firing, I wacked his annoying little head and got him off him. Only then did I raise my little pistol and shoot him in the head, hearing the satisfying 'hurk-blaah' of his death.

"_You_ just got fucking pwned!" Before anyone else could catch me, I booked my ass out of there, running straight into Zach a few feet away from my first body count.

"Dammit, move it!"

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"Not at all! I'm playing a game of Capture the Flag, now buzz off Redturd" I shoved him off me, trying to get another kill before the game ended. He grabbed my ankle before I could get far and forced me back down to the ground. He kicked out of the grip and scrambled to get away as assault rifle fire bounced off around the ground near us.

"You're going to get us killed! HEY DICK, GET BACK HERE!" I was off again, Zach screaming at me fading in the background of gunfire. I had to duck down as a rocket screamed up near my face, feeling the heat of it as it zoomed past me. That was close, how did I miss that?! Must be rustier then I thought. I spotted the twerp though who shot it, holding his Rocket Launcher in the air and looking rather pissed.

"Dammit I fucking missed!" came the distressed cry of the rocket wielder. "Hey is that a girl?"

"Damn!" I raised my pistol, shooting at him several times but missing by a mile. He ducked down by another rock and waited. I grabbed for an abandoned assault rifle right as another Blue did, and I ended up in a fight for it.

"Give it to me!" the blue yelled at me, yanking one end hard. I yanked back quickly, starting a tug-o-war.

"I grabbed it first!" I yelled back. I yanked as hard as I could muster as well, but found it in my possession as the Blue backed off and mumbled something about a girl on his team. Huh, I guess these guys never have had a girl on a game before. Poor neglected bastards.

"Thank you!" I yelled at his direction and shot at the rocket guy as he aimed for my team mate, hitting him somehow enough to bring his shields down. I still was a crappy shot. He cursed loud and aimed his other rocket tube at me. I couldn't move though this time as he fired and it came at me. Why I couldn't move, well I just couldn't react; rockets scare me just a bit. As a warning on my HUD screamed about the heat and the proximity of the rocket, I was slammed out of the way of the big explosive shot and on to my back. The wind was knocked out of me. I closed my eyes for a second, and as the air finally came back to me I opened my eyes, and instantly blushed from ear to ear.

"Get off m- oh dear lord, _please_ get off me…." It was Zach again, saving me from doom via Zealot. I should be thankful right now but where he was laying did not give me the opportunity to thank him. "P-please get off me…"

Why does this always happen when men push people out of the way of things? Why do they land on top of you like this? Zach looked up and finally realized where he now was.

"Oh shit…."

"Oh shit's right, now can you kindly get off me?" I asked meekly, my voice smaller. I didn't like this; please get off me before you can see my helmet turn red from blushing!

-Zach-

Oh man, I hoped those visors would hide the crimson blushing across my face. But she had basically tried to commit suicide! What else was I supposed to do? Let her get turned into a cloud of Blue mist? Fuck no! She had however earned a little of that embarrassment from kicking away from me when I tried to keep her from interfering in the Zealot fight. There were rockets, bullets, plasma, needlers, and grenades flying everywhere, it was a miracle the two of us were even still whole!

"Uh...sorry," I mumbled rolling off of her as a pair of Blue Zealots rounded a corner with weapons raised.

"Charge! Whoa..."

The two of them tripped over me, falling all around, their rifles flying free and sending us from awkward, to absolute unquestionable danger. In that moment, I remembered a few little tricks I'd learned in fighting hand to hand from wrestling with my family members, a few tips from a buddy of mine from college who was in the Marines(The real Marines) and from Bourne movies. The Zealots were a bit surprised that they'd tipped on the two of us, so I had a bit of a head start to fight them off as they realized that I was a Red and she was a Blue and I was on top of her.

"Hey! She's on our team! Get him!" the Zealot on the right screamed from his sitting position from the ground.

"What? When'd we get a girl?" the other one said.

"Oh what the Hell," I grumbled tackling the Zealot that was on the ground nearest to being on his feet.

With a desperate jump I tackled him, trying to keep him on the ground. I didn't exactly hit him head on, more like a blunt force that pushed him back. But I did lead with my shoulder, as football player would, and the sudden shock of the blow did the job of whiplashing the Zealot back into the dirt. I rolled off of him, and saw that the other one had grabbed for a pistol laying in the dirt. He had just managed to get his hand around it when I saw Jenn launch herself at him in an effort to keep him from stopping. But as I watched her grapple with the single Zealot on the ground, grabbing for the pistol, the Zealot i'd attacked launched himself at me. He drove his shoulder into my gut as I got to my knees and drove me back into a rock. He wasn't very big, thankfully, but he was stronger than I was hoping he would be. I brought me knee up and into his gut and shoved him back far enough to get my bearings and assume some manner of fighting position, but the Zealot instantly charged at me again leading with a fist that would have hit my face had I not tried, rather badly, to block it. The fist was basically diverted as I brought a single gauntlet up that brushed it to the side and launched the Zealot into me and since I was a bit bigger than him, I got the advantage of a second strike right into his face. Hoping it wouldn't hurt I sent a solid right hook into his face and that spun him around. Knowing that this guy would not stop until I killed him I charged forward, ducking down and grabbing onto one of his legs and lifted him up onto one leg. I had him off balance so I drove forward and down. His squeal of pain was quite loud as we landed in the creek, much farther down than I expected.

"Oh I saw that dude, that was awesome!" a Red Zealot said poking his head from above a rock on the opposite bank. But was just as quickly hit by a sniper round, "Herk-blah!"

His pistol tumbled down the rock face and within reach and I made a grab for it. But it was too far to reach without letting go of the Blue I had pinned. I was afraid if I tried snapping his neck, which is easier than it should be I might add, I would kill the poor guy for real. But I decided just to shoot him. So with a final shove I dove for the pistol and grabbed it and fired the round at him from point blank, sending him falling over to the left of me. The sounds of battle died down, except for the sounds of struggle coming from the right as I saw Jenn trying to strangle the Zealot from on his back with one hand still grasped on the pistol, firing it off into the air and another around his neck while her legs were wrapped around his midsection.

"A little help here!" was all she could say as the Zealot stumbled around.

"Hang on!" was the only thing I said as I checked to see if I still had bullets and charged forward.

Just like before I bull rushed the guy and threw all the force I had into the tackle I could. I slammed my head and shoulders into the Zealot and heard the strangely familiar pop of armor on armor. The blow sent him tumbling down, and sent Jenn off to the side, and so I pointed the pistol at the Zealot and fired. And with three shots, mostly poorly aimed I took him down with a satisfying "herk-blah" thrown in.

"Thanks," Jenn managed to say as she got up, grabbing the pistol she had been trying to keep from being turned on me.

"No problem."

But up on the ledge where I knew that Sarge and Caboose had gone I heard the classic line, "I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, where this place is, or where in the Hell O'Malley is!"

"Sergeant, I think I am going to like her."

"I have a feeling that I won't like him. Why in the Sam Hill did you save a Blue?!"

"It's difficult to explain," I said, looking at Jenn, a smile on my lips.

"I'd say."

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_**I don't know why but this has gotten me excited.**_

_**Big Z: Agreed.**_

_**It's really his thing, well I co-write...I just post the story, okay? We basically just shoved out muses into the RvB universe...**_

_**Big Z: Yep...**_

_**...Well thanks for reading this, in my opinion rather experimental, story. Review and tell us what you think of it.**_


	2. Goodbye Battle Creek, Hello Flesh Wound

-Zach-

The aftermath of a battle is oddly quiet, almost painfully so. Well in this case that silence was mercifully interrupted with the intensely angry yelling of Sarge, demanding an answer to why I'd basically saved a Blue from destruction. However, I did not save a Blue, I saved a girl who'd needlessly risked her life for the thrill of battle and trying to live out the Red vs Blue life for herself. I can't blame her in context, but in all seriousness, it was a stupid thing to do. Especially when she had no appreciable skill or training for combat. But hey, we were alive, and that left me to deal with Sarge and Jenn to deal with Caboose, God help her.

"What is wrong with you soldier? Didn't the Red Army put you through training, give you a manual, show you that cheesy training film from the nineties?!" Sarge bellowed.

"Uh…there's a training film?" I asked.

"Of course there is! How else would we train you to be able to tell what color Red is, and what color Blue is?" Sarge asked, increasingly pissed off.

"Well they didn't show me that, I sort of entered training late. So uh…yeah, I only saved her because I was certain that you wouldn't want a good soldier like that killed in a needless conflict after being sent to help us defeat O'malley." I said, thinking of some way to calm him down.

"Well…she did fight a fellow Blue, so she does have that going for her."

"Yeah that too."

"Well anyway, we need to figure out how to get into contact with the rest of team, I'm sure Simmons is working on a plan and Grif is dead, hopefully I can let Command let me keep you as a replacement, I mean you're here and all. Might as well take advantage of this very rare opportunity."

"And if Grif isn't dead?"

"What do you mean?" Sarge asked.

"I mean what if Grif is alive? Would you consider keeping me if he were alive anyway. I mean, you need all the help you can get right?" I replied, trying to kind of test the temperature of the water so to speak. I really wanted to go back to Blood Gulch, at least there I knew what was happening, who everyone was, and all that jazz. And I had a feeling that Sarge would use me to supplement the team to get a leg up on the Blues anyway and basically let me take over for Grif.

"I suppose having you around couldn't hurt, besides, those pesky Blues have found my weakness, women! If you have no quarrel with hitting a girl you can stay."

If I lived to see it that is. But at the moment I had no idea if what I was doing had affected the timeline to a point where anything that happened was totally different than it should have been. But this was only one part of the Reds and Blues being split up, so it was highly unlikely. There was Simmons out in the teleporter room map thing trying to regain a connection with the rest of the team, there was Donut, Tex, Tucker, and Sheila out in Blood Gulch, and Grif and Church at Sidewinder imprisoned at the Red Base there. And that left Caboose and Sarge, along with Jenn and I here to wait for Simmons to find us and get us the Hell out of here.

"Yeah I have no problem with fighting the Blues, regardless of sex," I replied, trying to get a guaranteed pass to stay with the Reds.

"Excellent! Now, where are those Blues?"

-Jenn-

I hope Zach knows what he was doing with Sarge. The guy saved my Blue ass, which I have to give to him, and risked getting shot by Sarge. If I had known my skills were as rusty as I thought, I would have stayed back and watched, but I guess being separated from Xbox Live does things to your trigger fingers. If I remember my Red vs Blue timeline right, we have time to blow and another wakeup call from the Zealots to go through before we get our asses out of Battle Creek.

"Hey lady…."

I turned my attention to Caboose as he tugged at my arm. I had to look up a bit, because my god he was bigger than I thought. For a teddy bear, the boy had some size to him.

"Yes Caboose?"

"Why did you fight with the weird guys?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I guess I just wanted to fight. It's been in a blood for a bit, plus I basically body slammed Sarge and had my ass protected by Zach there. Not good to hold on to anger" I explained. Caboose seemed to accept that answer and looked over the playing field. He seemed to ponder on something.

"What was your name again mean lady?" he asked. I chuckled a bit under my breath, and tapped his helmet.

"Jenn Athens. Just call me Athens, or Jenn, okay Caboose?"

"Okay Sparta"

So he was going to call me random ancient city names like he did Donut? I could deal with it, and only because it was Caboose. Caboose always had a soft spot in my heart. I chuckled again and then walked off a bit, looking over the dead bodies of the awaiting Zealots. It still reminded me of a Matchmaking game.

It still felt…weird though. Was I forgetting something important in the timeline? It felt tied to Caboose. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Caboose tried to follow a butterfly with his eyes.

"Come on inner Freelancer, figure it out" I whispered ot myself, trying to figure it out. It still haunted me though, and I found myself in a blank train of thought.

"Hey Corinth? Can I ask you something again?" Caboose was looking at me again, and I could only imagine soft eyes pleading for my attention. I turned to him again and hummed in acknowledgment.

"Why did you fight a blue?"

"He….ugh, he was going to hurt and/or kill Zach and I…It's complicated really" I groaned, rubbing at my helmet.

"Oh it's okay. I have the same problem! We have this one rule that we always break…." Caboose trailed off and we sat in silence for a bit.

"Is Zach something to you?" I chocked on my air a bit, my face lighting up behind my visor. I sobered up though as I thought about it. Once more, I had to give it to Caboose.

"I guess so. We're both here because of complicated….reasons, plus he saved my life" Caboose nodded and went back to watching the butterfly. We had to find the Reds, and hope that they had some sort of plan; more specifically that Zach had a plan because I was lost a bit.

The sound of a Reveille was starting up again, and Caboose could hear it too. He stood up quickly and was off to find Sarge I assume, leaving me on the cliff as the Zealots one by one stood up with hoots and hollers and cries of war, raising their guns up in celebration of being revived and getting another chance to pointlessly kill each other and try to get the flag. They all ran around for a moment, and then single filed into their colored bases.

"Here we go again….ZACH! ZACH, Round Two is up!"

-Zach-

The high pitched yelling from the numerous Zealots awaiting their time to attack was loud and clear. I'd always thought of the Zealots being one of my favorite characters or set of characters because whenever they're around there's a fight scene and what's not to love about that? But when you're on the actual receiving end of their battle you've got a real problem and can't enjoy it.

"Get up high! We can't be caught down here when they come out guns blazing!" I yelled back to Jenn, grabbing the pistol I'd acquired earlier off my thigh.

"Aww…but…" she started, turning towards the Blue Base.

"Seriously? Don't you get that we're here for real and may not be able to come back if and when we get shot? Go!" and just like that I grabbed by the arm and shoved her right towards one of the overwatch cliffs where there was a ladder that would lead up towards a safe spot we could take cover while the Zealots fought it out.

"Oh come on, nothing bad happened the last time we fought!" she argued, standing her ground next to the ladder.

"You about got turned into a cloud of blue mist Jenn!"

"Okay besides that I kicked ass," she responded, conceding that point but definitely not the argument.

"Are you two like a couple or something?" a high pitched voice asked from the side.

I turned to the left to see a Red Zealot, holding an assault rifle in one hand and scratching his head in utter confusion. Apparently had he not ever seen a girl before this time he had never seen a girl and a guy together. Or he'd been here killing and getting killed so long that he completely forgot.

"A couple…no no no, we're uh…" Jenn stumbled over her words then turned on the Zealot with a fairly harsh tongue, "Wait aren't you supposed to be getting killed or something?"

"Oh we do that all the time, this just seemed more entertaining."

"Well fun time's over, scram!" Jenn lashed out, forgetting the guy had an assault rifle and was in red armor.

"Okay, prepare to die dirty Blue… And with one swift movement he pulled up the weapon to Jenn's face and prepared to pull the trigger. But then a solid pop from the Zealot's head made the two of us jump in surprise, "herk-blah!"

"Hiyah! Come you two, you can commit treason with one another later!"

It was Sarge, he'd slammed the Zealot in the back of his head with his shotgun, which he now held in one hand. I sort of snapped back to reality and grabbed the pistol I was still holding and remembered the stance I'd seen and learned from in movies, TV shows, and air soft with my buddies back at Texas A&M.

"We're not a couple!" Jenn screamed as Sarge turned away and joined Caboose in fighting off the Zealots who had now taken a particular interest in the four of us.

"I never said we were!" I replied as I tried aiming at whatever Red or Blue targets I could pick out. Then started feeling the bucking in my palm of the powerful M6D Magnum, or as everyone seems to call it, the Halo 1 Pistol.

"Well tell that to everyone else in this damned canyon!" she yelled back climbing up the ladder to try and get a better vantage point.

As she scrambled up the ladder I just chuckled to myself at how she could take a simple few lines indicating people thought we were a couple and flip out over it in the middle of battle. Then I realized I was thinking about what she thought about in the middle of battle in the middle of a battle myself. So I refocused and tried the best I could to steady my aim and make each shot count as the Zealots popped out of cover behind rocks to charge at the three of us. Caboose was remarkably accurate, mostly against the Blue Zealots, which made me grateful that Jenn wasn't down here. Otherwise, things would not play out well for her, especially considering the one guy whose team kills are reported via keyboard short cuts.

-Jenn-

God dammit, of all things that could be happening in the middle of this crap! Someone, just someone, had to point _that _out! The last thing I needed to be on the battlefield was flustered and confused. Stupid observing Zealots, stupid Sarge.

"God dammit!" I yelled, closing my eyes the moment I fired, hearing a 'herk-blah' following my shot.

"Nice shot" Zach commented, firing a few shots himself.

"I don't want to be up here dammit, I want to be down there. Sarge got to, Caboose got to, but noooo, just because I freeze I have to be up here on this stupid cliff, shooting people from far away and fighting the fact that people thought you and me were a couple!" I ranted, firing at random again, a few shots hitting a poor Blue who fell quickly into the creek. The others embedded themselves into the ground or bounced off rocks into oblivion. My HUD was also flashing another warning about my increased heart rate. Shut up already, I know!

"Don't waste ammo. Why are you so flustered about the couple comment anyway?"

"I'm not!" I shouted, starting to turn toward him. "But why the hell…. watch out!"

I shoved my way in front of him and shot quickly at a Red who was already pulling his trigger at us. My shots, finally accurate like I was playing Halo Reach again, hit their marks and killed him. His body flopped lifeless down to the ground, but his shots fired and I barely had time to move, much less dodge most of them. A few shots hit me before I could pivot my ankle to run, and my shields flickered and died. Well…..I guess Zach was right; it really was life and death, not simulated stuff. Everything seemed to hurt as the bullets hit me and stuck into my armor, knocking me back into Zach as he shouted something at me. I could register my HUD warning me of the hits and a bunch of other things, and I could feel where the bullets were.

"Jenn! Jenn, what the hell were you thinking?"

"Saving your ass. You didn't see him" I wheezed out. "Wasn't going to let you get shot"

"So you let yourself get shot instead?!"

I let out a faint chuckle. I wasn't dying, I think. I don't think I'm bleeding. Getting shot is definitely a new feeling, and hurts like hell even through armor. I'm probably lucky for the shields keeping most of them back. I know the bullets that did hit me hit square in the chest. I don't know why but I brought up the FF tags of the others. Caboose was a few feet away on the field, looking like he was keeping an eye on us and then on the Zealots still alive and trying to attack. Sarge was somewhere, but I couldn't see him. Zach was starting to tug me back away from the cliff edge, shade coming up around us. Some of the alerts on my HUD turned off, and it cleared up my vision.

"Why the hell did you get shot for me?" Zach asked propping me up against the rock wall. I shook my head for a moment, trying to move my hands to my helmet. I needed it off, it was hurting me. Zach caught on and disconnected the oxygen line, tugging the helmet off and setting it next to us.

"Why did you do that Jenn?" he asked again. I looked up at him this him.

"I guess my feelings are stronger than I thought" I mumbled under my breath.

"What?"

"I didn't want to see you dead…" I said instead, blushing without cover or care. Not my greatest choice for words but all I hoped now, besides the hope for no critical injuries, was that he didn't hear me or understand the double meaning in my words. I leaned back a bit, watching Zach through the slight fuzziness of my vision. I just seemed to forget the bullet wounds, and the fact that it sounded like the battle was ending.

Zach looked like he forgot it too, but I couldn't make sure. I couldn't see past his visor.

-Zach-

Oh this was bad, Jenn had just gotten shot, and what made that worse was that I couldn't tell if she was badly injured, just scratched or even bleeding. Her armor was tough and add the weak shields that the armor possessed and you would think she would have been merely scratched, but I couldn't tell, not with this helmet on. So I reached behind the helmet, unlatching the seal of the helmet and yanked it off to get a better look at what damage may have been done.

"Do you feel like you're bleeding?" I asked, placing the helmet to the side.

I felt the cooler air of the canyon wash over my face and I could smell the harsh aroma of sulfur from the firing of the numerous weapons that had been used. I ran my hand through my hair, feeling it wet with sweat from not taking the damned thing off this whole time. As I now reexamined Jenn's armor I noticed that she hadn't responded. So I looked back towards her face and saw that she was blushing! Of all the things to do after being shot she was blushing! But then I finally registered that she was staring at me right in the eye. She sort of had this faraway and embarrassed look in her face, but her eyes were a bit more...deep than that. I'd seen this look in trailers for chick flicks and I figured out what might have been going on in her head. But that didn't take away from the fact she was fucking shot! So I cleared my throat and tried to stay on topic as I hoped I wasn't blushing.

"Hello, Earth to Jenn," I said snapping my fingers in front of her face, "I need to see if you're okay here."

"Huh...what?"

"You've been shot!"

"Oh sorry," she said, clearing her throat and looking down at her armor.

It was well perforated damaged in four spots I could see, two were in her breast plate high near her collar bone and another pair were lower on the abdominal plate. The bullets had penetrated fairly far, too far for me to see if they'd gone into her body and done damage. She did seem to be in pain, but she wasn't showing it. She held a hand over her side tightly, away from the main grouping of hits on the black undersuit, which was weaker and more exposed than the tougher blue plates.

"Does it hurt?" I asked, looking at her armor and the damage it had done, "Or where does it hurt?"

"Oh yeah uh...it just hurts, nothing more than that."

"Does it feel like you're bleeding?" I asked, running my hand over part of her breast plate where three rounds had embedded themselves into the metal plate.

"I don't know, I've never been shot before!" she snapped as I tried to figure out what the Hell I was going to do.

"Well...blood is usually warm so is there anywhere that feels like warmth is spreading."

"Do you honestly think that I would be able to tell right now?!"

"Well it's either that or we'll have to figure out how badly you're hit by taking off the armor itself," I replied, and I immediately wished that I didn't.

"Don't you even think about it!" she snapped, shoving me away.

I was caught a little off balance, and was pushed right onto my ass. She was about to get up when she doubled over in pain, holding her side with her left hand. It was clear that she had been shot right there, but I hadn't seen it due to the way she had been holding her hand over it. It must have been under the control until the suit tore and the seal around the wound broke, letting out the blood I was now seeing drain across her hand and onto the blue waist armor. Her face was contorted with a gritting teeth and her eyes squinted shut. It wasn't that much blood, just a trio of small lines going down her hand, but it could be worse than what I was seeing.

"Oh no," I whispered shuffling to her left side, and tried prying her hand off of the wound.

"Ow! Don't...don't touch it. It hurts!" she groaned.

"Well that's good, I think," I said, not sure if those military and western films I'd seen that said that if you felt pain from the shot then you were alright, were correct.

"How is that good! How'd you like me to shoot you and see how it feels?!"

"Well if what I know is correct then if you can feel the pain then you're gonna be fine but it is still something that we need to do something about," I said, looking at the wound again.

"Get...get Sarge, maybe he can help."

"You realize who you're talking about right?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. But, what if..."

"Wait a minute," I said, interrupting her, "what about a med kit?"

"A med kit? Do you know how to use one?"

"Seriously? All I know about them is that you press 'X' to use it and it disappears. I have no idea what's in the fucking things!"

"Sheesh calm down. Maybe Sarge knows how or maybe Simmons when we get to him. But not Tucker if he..."

As Jenn started to talk Sarge yelled up to us, "Hey you two, stop doing whatever it is teenagers do together when they're alone and get down here. I've got a idea."

"Oh shit, we're about to see Caboose get angry!" I gasped, remembering the most deadly moment of the series behind Caboose's second rampage in Season 10.

"Screw the wound. Get me up, I need to see this!" Jenn said, trying to scramble to her feet.

-Jenn-

I hoped I wasn't being totally foolish for trying to move with the flesh wound I found out I had, but missing Caboose be angry would be a waste. I got to my feet, though I almost doubled over and landed back on the ground. I growled to myself, trying to summon whatever dignity and strength I had to move and not miss this. I struggled to stay up, gripping the wound as best as I could to stop it from bleeding anymore.

"Are you trying to hurt yourself more?!" Zach asked, grabbing our helmets. I didn't really need to answer, so I started to try and walk, getting a few feet before I collapsed on my knees again. Zach immediately was at my side again, trying to pry my hand free from my side.

"S-stop it. I got it. I can't miss this Zach! Of all the things I could miss…..this is not one of them!" I stood up again, walking calmly and collected out to the side of the cliff again. We were near Red Base, and just as Zach caught up and handed me my helmet, we could just hear from the base one of the Zealots.

"REPENT, REPENT!"

"Looks like they already got the flags from them" Zach commented. Nodding in agreement, I continued down the side of the cliff until we saw Sarge and Caboose standing on one of the tallest points, the Blue Team flag waving in the wind in Sarge's hands. Caboose seemed to just stare at the flag.

"There you are! Come on, we're goin' to negotiate with them to help us!" Sarge called out, waving the flag in his hands.

"I don't think that's going to work Sarge…." I started to argue before I clenched up again, gripping my side tighter.

"Shut it, she Blue!"

"Sarge, sir, I think it would unwise to try to negotiate with them" Zach added. Sarge looked at him for a moment, seemed think about it, and obviously let it pass without another thought.

We both looked out to Battle Creek as both Blue and Red Zealots came out on large sour notes, barley cheering, completely unenthusiastic, and depressed. They looked like people who were regretting rage quitting or something. They slowly made their way to the middle of the map, guns lowered and looking rather grim. Nothing was fired or shot, and none of them seemed to yell. Really, the flag was that important to them. Sarge audibly cleared his throat as he stepped out into the view of the Zealots.

"Oh Blue Team…..look what I have!" Sarge taunted, waving the flag a bit. All of the Blue Zealots looked toward Sarge, some gasping. Zach started to point out Caboose as he stepped up with the Red Team Flag.

"Oh Blue Team…."

The Red Zealots turned this time, some looking a bit confused.

"Look what…wait, I messed up my line. Let's start over" Sarge looked over at Caboose and nearly facepalmed his helmet.

One of the Red Zealots stepped out of the team and shouted out at the display. "They have our flag!"

"No they don't, they have our flag!" one of the Blue Zealots challenged, stepping forward as well. His teammates nodded in approval.

"Listen you morons…." Sarge said over them all, "You're gonna have to work for us now."

"What's in it for us?" the same Red Zealot shouted up to us. I let out a shaky breath, trying to keep myself calm. This was taking too long, why couldn't Caboose get mad already?

"Help us get out of here, and we'll give you back your flags. Then you can go back to senselessly killing yourselves"

"Deal! Ha, sucker!"

"Wait…" a Blue Zealot called out, waving away the Red Zealot shouting out, "why don't we just kill you guys and take the flags back?"

A Red seemed to think for a moment, them hummed in approval. "Hm…Yeah!"

Sarge growled something under his breath, tossed the flag behind him, yanked up a sniper rifle from the ground and shot at the Blue Zealot's head, killing him instantly. Zach whistled in what I will assume in amazement.

"Oh, you got owned. I saw it, fucking owned!" Some Red soldier called out, pointing at the body of the dead Blue. The Blue team turned from us on the cliff to the reds, shouting out 'Teams, teams, teams'. Caboose set his flag behind him and watched as the Reds argued back 'Teams are fine, teams are fine!'. Soon the yelling and arguing turned to 'Fight, fight, fight,' and guns and grenades and all kinds of weapons starting firing again, signaling the continued battle of Battle Creek. The Zealots seemed to forget the flags and went on killing themselves without any reason or care.

"They just….forgot us…." I whispered. Zach nodded and looked up at Sarge, who dropped the sniper and took his shotgun up again in arms.

"Caboose, Zach, Girly…..I give up"

"Wait. I can make them listen. I can beat them" Caboose said, walking up to Sarge. I had to sigh a bit in relief.

"Happy that you get to see him get mad up close?" Zach pondered. I shook my head, letting my knees collapse underneath me.

"No….that I don't have to wait long for help…."

"Jenn?!"

"It's….worse than…I thought….huh…" I flopped forward, unable to keep awake any longer. I couldn't make out what I was seeing, but could hear Zach shout for Sarge, and then Caboose's roar out as he jumped off the cliff at the Zealots in his own rage. The yell though sounded kind of funny, like he was taking a dump. Why did I think of that?

"Jenn, stay awake for a little bit longer!" Zach yelled. He was shaking me, I think. "Come on, Simmons 2.0 is about to get us out, please!"

Was he picking me up? Was Caboose killing the Zealots right now? Did I miss his line? Can you tell me if I missed it Zach?

"God dammit, Jenn, stay awake!"

Too tired Zach…..I'm just too tired.

-Zach-

"Oh no..." I mumbled, grabbing Jenn with my hand under her head. She was limp, completely unconscious, "Jenn! Come on wake up!"

The Zealots were now being slaughtered by Caboose, his rampaging roaring was very much in full swing. He tossed and punched and kicked his way through Zealot after Zealot. But I paid attention to none of it, as I had a very unconscious girl on my hands. Then the radio suddenly crackled to life. But I ignored it, ripping her helmet off and saw that she was getting pale, which meant she was losing blood at an alarming rate. Her eyes were gently closed, blissfully unconscious from the trauma and pain.

"Sarge, are you there Sarge!"

"Simmons 2.0?!" Sarge responded back.

"Sarge! We need to Jenn out of here!" I yelled, ignoring Simmons' conversation with Sarge, timeline be damned, I'm not letting her die.

"Who's that sir?" Simmons asked on the radio.

"Never mind that, she's unconscious we need to get her medical attention. Help me!" I screamed, wrapping my arms underneath her armpits as I started to drag her towards the Blue Base where I knew that a teleporter to Simmons would be waiting.

"Alright fine," Sarge grumbled, jumping down and running up along side me as I put her helmet on so I wouldn't forget it and to protect her head.

The two of us threw her arms over our shoulders and started fast walking with her legs dragging on the ground in between us. Caboose was still angry, having killed all the Zealots without much trouble and was ranting uncontrollably.

"I will eat your unhappiness!"

"Shut up Caboose! Come on!" I yelled over, getting him to turn and run to catch up as we rounded the corner and came upon the teleporter.

"Take your time Simmons, we've got a wounded Blue here," Sarge casually remarked.

"Sarge!"

"Alright fine, step on it Simmons, this new guy wants to save this Blue girl's life. I think they're trying to recreate Romeo and Juliet or something," Sarge growled.

"We're not going out Sarge, come on Simmons!"

"Stop yelling at me!"

Then the sound of the Zealots yelling and chanting came to our ears.

"Simmons hurry up! We're gonna die if we don't get out of here!" Sarge now frantically ordered.

"Not you too Sarge, I rely on you for love and support."

I reached a hand to cup Jenn's helmeted head and gently tapped at it, trying to anything to keep her alive. I couldn't see her face behind the gold visor, but if the extent of how pale she was when I put the thing on was anything to go by, then she was ghostly white by now. Her blue armor was stained red all the way down to her thigh plate by now, the tear in the suit's side had gotten worse, and was now profusely bleeding. I tried helping by applying a solid steady hand on the bleeding, getting the slick lubrication of suit on glove from her blood. It was clear she was hurt worse than I'd thought. Then Sarge threw Jenn over to me.

"Get her through, Simmons is done!"

"Got it!"

And so, wrapping my arm right arm around her thin midsection, and grabbing her left arm with my own left hand I took a deep breath and charged through the glowing green portal. I felt the burning of the millisecond long experience of going through the teleporter and was soon reemerging in the concrete and metal 'janitor's closet' that held a great many teleporters. Simmons was standing in front of me, and seemed shocked to see a Blue come through the teleporter with a Red carrying her. But I couldn't care less what Simmons thought, as I turned on him immediately.

"Get a medical kit!"

"What for her?! She'll kill us!" he responded, pointing at Jenn.

I looked back down, and then I saw what he was afraid of, her armor wasn't blue anymore, it was matte black.

"You too?" I asked, then looked down at my own armor, seeing it as its normal crimson red, "That's weird."

"Sarge!" Simmons cried out, seeing Sarge and Caboose run through the portal.

"Simmons I give you an F in efficiency, but I have to give you an A+ in dramatic timing."

"That's okay, I've always thought that presentation was what matters most."

"Will you guys help me here?" I groaned, taking off Jenn's helmet to see her eyes fluttering open.

"What happened?"

"You're alright Jenn, just stay with me," I said, holding onto her hand and squeezed it tight.

"Alright I got a med kit," Sarge bellowed, "Now this is going to hurt you, which will honestly make saving your life worth it."

"What?" she weakly groaned, watching the needle with unfocused eyes.

Sarge pulled out a big syringe of morphine with a great big long needle and put it at one of the medical access points on the armor's thigh where a blood slick had been mixed in with the black soot from the teleporter. Then, even before she could even acknowledge what Sarge was going to do he stuck in the needle and the sudden effects knocked her right back out. And as she slipped back into being out cold and Sarge got to work Caboose came back to reality, or at least as close as he normally got.

"What happened, all I remember was a really mean kitten, and my throat hurt a lot, and now Tex is here. Hi Tex!"


	3. A New Map of Interest

-Zach-

The time spent waiting for Sarge and Simmons to get Jenn bandaged up was as if a lifetime were going by. Their efforts were compounded by the fact she was a girl and that she was a Blue, which made Sarge question why he was saving a Blue and Simmons was none too happy that she could have been Tex for all he knew. Her armor was still coated in black soot from the trip through the teleporter and was sort of washed away by a trail of blood on her armor that had sprung forth from the place she had been shot. Jenn had yet to wake up from when Sarge had injected her with whatever it was that had knocked her out with an hour ago and that left me with quite a bit of time to think of what on Earth we would end up doing!

We'd sort of made it through the torrent of homicidal maniacs that were the Zealots and were now just in the middle of a bit of a respite where we could rest, recuperate, get our bearings, and in Jenn's case, not die from her wounds. But, according to Sarge, they weren't too bad. Her suit absorbed most of the impact of the bullet but it had flattened, creating more surface area and thus more damage to her body where it had entered at slow speed. However, that damage was easily repaired and the only thing of concern was for the loss of blood. For that the med kit came with a container that had, and this is no joke, dehydrated blood that was synthetic and was capable of being adapted to the body of the person in need, creating an excellent way to mass produce it and use it quickly.

I was sitting there next to Jenn with the canister held up, feeding the last of the blood into her arm where it was connected through the armor. She'd stirred a few times already, mostly mumblings that I couldn't even comprehend. She had been laid down onto her back where Sarge was able to work on her wound with the greatest amount of flexibility possible. Her armor plates had been taken off, so to fre up the area around the wound. A white bandage was now placed on her side that was covering the wound and healing it at the same time with a futuristic ixture of chemicals that encouraged the body to heal up. I was no longer afraid of her dying, I was now afraid of what she was going to think of me when she realized her armor had been taken off and was stacked against the wall behind her with the black undersuit allowing us three Reds to see that it was very tight fitting, especially on girls. Then, the moment I'd been waiting for arrived, she began shaking her head back and forth and then raised her left hand to her eyes and she tried to sit up grumbling something under her breath.

"Hey whoa whoa, whoa, easy there," I said holding her down with a firm placement of my hand on her shoulder. Her eyes shot open, and looked right at me.

"What…where…"

"You're alright Jenn, take it easy," I tried to say, but she began looking around the room and then she saw her armor plates stacked up and then looked back at me with a face that was flushing red. She looked me dead in the eye and I knew all Hell was going to break loose, again.

-Jenn-

I really didn't expect this sort of surprise when I woke up after my wounds took me under. I never really expected Zach right here next to me, holding up a baggie of blood, or that my side stung but felt healed up. I didn't expect to not feel anything about being so close to him. The biggest surprise was that my armor was off.

My armor was away from me, and all I had to keep some sense of modesty was an extremely form-fitting black undersuit that showed off every curve and every single little thing under it.

Everything in me told me to kick his ass for taking it off, and around all these Red guys. Everything started to shake at the fact that he could see that it was extremely tight on me. Everything was also shaking because….

"D-did you take my armor off?" I asked, my voice bordering on embarrassed and angry. I kept my eyes solely on his eyes, seeing if he would react. He immediately sort of recoiled, set the blood baggie down, and started, or at least tried to explain.

"L-look, we needed to get it off to free up the area where you were shot. I didn't exactly want to do it but I wasn't exactly going to let you die. At least be grateful I did it and not Sarge or Simmons or Caboose. So please, don't try anything stupid or try to attack me, we don't want your wound to open up again!"

"B-but you! You-"

"I know, I know, you already didn't want me to but we had no choice! IT was either that or let you bleed out, which I wasn't just going to let happen"

I started to sit up again, but his hand still on my shoulder kept me down. My side flinched and I instantly regretted trying to move. I hissed out in pain and tried to claw at the white bandage now over my side. He also deflected my attempt and kept telling me to sit still. I growled at him and he backed off a bit.

"Let me up…." I groaned. Zach simply shook his head and lifted the almost empty bag of blood again.

"No point trying to point your armor back on Jenn. You just need to relax, alright?"

I sighed, looking off to my left. I know I was still blushing at the thought of him tugging off the armor, and the fact that his hand was on me and it was rather warm and comfortable. I was still shaking a bit, but why was I….

"Zach…."

"Hm?"

I looked back at him, away from the armor and all the shiny teleporters, and just stared at him. I see what was happening now. He seemed to simmer red as we just looked at each other. Maybe my eyes were showing something? I don't know, I was still a bit dizzy. Weakly, I lifted my hand up to cup one side of his face, and gave him my best sort of lopsided smile-smirk. My face started to heat up again in a blush as soon as I did too.

"Thanks….for saving me"

"You thought I wouldn't?"

"I barely know you but…."

I took a leap forward, sitting up enough to where my side didn't hurt and I could just get up into his face, keeping myself as balanced as possible with my other arm. I could feel his breath, and he could probably feel mine. I didn't really care right now, but no one really ever did shit like this for me. I was a bit of an outcast. I wasn't going to let this go. We were both fans of Red vs Blue, thrown into the universe by rigged helmets from RTX, and to top it off we seemed to at least understand each other enough to see eye to eye sometimes.

"I feel like I could trust you…." I finally finished my sentence, letting him take the next step. I wasn't going to jump off this cliff yet, I'm going to let him do it. Please, Zach, if you just understand this enough, if you feel something, anything at all….

"Do something…"

-Zach-

When Jenn placed her hand on my cheek and I could see her begin blushing red as a tomato again I knew that something was on her mind. I'd seen enough movies that had this type of situation in it at some point or another and I was not that detached from when someone was clearing wanting more than a friendship. Truth be told, I'd never had the guts to do anything like making the first move, never in my life had I made a move on a girl, it was either one of my friends saying that a girl liked me and then me worriedly asking her out or her asking me out! But asking Jenn out was a bit of an issue out here in the middle of the Red vs Blue universe, not many restaurants and movie theaters to go around. So that type of thing was off the table. But when she leaned forward, and brought her mouth up to my ear and said that she felt like she could trust me and pulled back, keeping her hand on my cheek and then waited.

My palms were sweating beneath the gloves and they started shaking slightly as my breath caught in my throat and my heart kicked into overdrive. My mouth felt unbelievable dry, and my mind was a mess of what if's and do it and don't do it. But it wasn't my mind that started to control when I heard two simple words that escaped Jenn's mouth.

"Do something..."

Without a word, I brought a slightly trembling left hand to her cheek. But once it made contact with the smooth warm skin the trembling stopped. I saw that she was leaning into my palm as i slightly brushed a few strands of hair away from her eyes and lips so that not one blonde strand was in the way when the inevitable happened. We both unconsciously started leaning towards one another and each turned our heads so as to bring our lips together in perfect harmony. I felt our noses brush one another just millimeters away. I could feel the warmth radiating from her face that was now blushing madly but she didn't seem to mind. We both closed our eyes as our lips were about to brush past one another, an electric feeling feeling like it was jumping between us even before we pressed our lips together. But before that ever happened...

"What in the sam hill?!" the voice of Sarge cried out, totally shocked and dumbfounded, "I knew I shouldn't have left two teenagers together. It always ends up with them falling in love."

The two of us jolted upright, looking to see Sarge with his Shotgun on his back. Jenn swung around to see Sarge herself but her wound apparently decided that she shouldn't because she hissed in pain as her eyes squinted shut and she leaned back with one hand balancing and the other holding tight over the bandage. I began blushing even more than I had when Jenn and I had about...kissed as Simmons stared at the two of us.

"What? Oh...my...God..." Simmons whispered, his draw probably hitting the bottom of his helmet.

"It's not what...I mean..." I desperately babbled.

"Not what? You and little miss Blue here getting to first base?" Sarge demanded, "Because it sure looks like it is to me."

Jenn kept her face hidden behind her hair that she had fall into her face to avoid eye contact as she averted her gaze elsewhere. She was clearly embarrassed, and so was I. But I was more afraid of what Sarge would do since he had seen us about to kiss, something that probably doesn't even register for him.

"Well...uh..." I tried finding some way of worming my way out of the situation I was in.

"Don't you even start with me, traitor."

"Oh come on Sarge," Jenn said, trying to stand up for me.

"And don't you even start Blue, this is your fault. You should be grateful we saved your life, not using your feminine Blue witchcraft on my soldiers. You should be surrendering as the Geneva Convention says you should," Sarge snapped.

"Uh Sarge, the Geneva Convention only applies to those signatories that had signed it, Red and Blue Armies were not one of them," Simmons stated.

"Nonetheless, in payment for saving your life I demand you unconditional surrender!" Sarge ordered.

"But I was helping you to find O'malley, don't I get some kind of consideration for that?" Jenn asked.

"Hmmm..." Sarge tapped his chin, remembering that she had killed several Blue Zealots in the time she had been helping them at Battle Creek, "You do make an excellent point."

"Sergeant! Sergeant!" Caboose piped up, running around the corner.

"Caboose I told you not to leave that teleporter until Donut reported that he'd completed work on his teleporter!"

"Captain Cinnamon Bun told me to tell you that he was finished and waiting for you to tell him what to do next," Caboose said, "Oh Tex is awake, hi Tex!"

"Caboose I'm not Tex," Jenn responded kindly but firmly.

"Yeah what was your name again? If you're not Tex, the bitch that beats the shit out of us in black armor, then who are you?"

"Jenn, Jenn Athens," she replied, sitting against the wall to get more comfortable.

"Oh okay, now a lot of things make sense, I thought you were Tex," Simmons replied.

"Yeah I could tell."

"Alright, Simmons, time to go, Zach you get the Blue missy ready to move. And no kissing or seducing!"

Without a second thought the three of them rounded the corner and left Jenn and me alone once again. I sighed a breath of relief I never knew I was holding and then reached over and grabbed onto Jenn's hand.

"Let's get you on your feet," I said gingerly pulling her up to her feet shakily. She'd really healed up well, but not well enough.

She sort of buckled her knees and I instinctively reached my arms under her armpits and kept her from falling to the ground. As I did so our bodies seemed to meld into one another and she looked at me in the eye and I looked right back at her. Then, placing a hand behind her neck I gently pulled her in towards me, without any resistance at all. And soon every emotion and feeling came back in a torrent as we repeated the steps we had gone through before. The rush of our noses brushing past each other, seeing our eyes inches apart and seeing every fabric and detail of her blue eyes as she stared right back into my gray ones. A few strands of blonde hair floated gently to the side of her face. Her arms wrapped themselves around my neck as our lips finally touched.

-Jenn-

So he got the context clue to take the first step. I have to admit that Sarge and Simmons's interrupting intrusion didn't help at all. At least I got to do this, at damn last. First kiss can now be checked off my mental list.

It was everything I had hoped for, just soft and warm. Being held up against his armored chest, just letting everything channel through our lips. Everything seemed to buzz and shudder as the kiss grew firmer. My arms tightened their hold around his neck, keeping me closer to him. Before I could stop myself, one of my hands wound itself up unto his hair. The hand on my neck slowly curled into my hair as well, a sigh passing through my lips into the kiss.

The kiss slowly ended, both of us instinctly pulling away just until our noses brushed comfortably, foreheads pressed together. Zach's face was still lit up in a crimson blush, but now it was also covered with a soft smile. I probably looked the same way, all blush and smiles right now. We were just staring into each other's eyes again, endless grey into expanding blue. It was just the beating of our hearts in our ears to accompany the soft humming of teleporters around us. I sighed after letting it go for so long and rested my head on his armored chest.

"I had hoped you'd do that…" I murmured, moving my arms to fully brace myself against him.

"Well you were making it kind of obvious you wanted to be more then friends…."

"It's rare for these things to happen for me, take it or leave it"

"Already took it"

Zach and I seemed content for just standing her like this, but only a minute in silence did everything suddenly become clear again, at least for me. I could feel my legs start working, and my head churning out every possibly bad scenario and situation this could turn into. I could think of all the reasons why I should have never kissed him or felt anything for him. It made me vulnerable. I was a whirlwind of sudden doubt. Nothing felt right yet everything was supposed to. I could make out that my body was working before my head realized it. I was pushing and nudging myself free and away from him.

"Zach….I…I'm sorry but…um…" my back hit the wall, making me feel pinned. "I..just…"

"Jenn?"

"Help me get my armor on? We don't want to keep the guys waiting right?"

It stung to change it all instantly, to block it without considering the other side of this sudden relationship. I stood on my own away from the wall just watching as Zach looks more conflicted then anything. I wasn't going to wait, I had to get away from this before it on farther and hurt both of us more. I walked up to my pile of armor and tugged on my gauntlets, making sure they were secure. Small little pieces of armor and minor things I could handle were slowly put on, and finally Zach came around and agreed to help. At least he was helping me, that is a good start. I just hope that the sudden change won't affect him so much.

Piece by rather heavy piece, my armor was back on again, and I could finally relax from feeling overexposed in front of so many guys. I grabbed for my helmet, the last little piece, and started to walk around a bit, getting a feel for it again. Being in nothing but a super tight almost cat suit is so mind numbing.

"Feel better now in armor?" Zach asked. I spun around and hugged my arms as I stopped in front of him.

"Yeeees, very much so! I missed it, I feel more covered now. Thank you Zach for helping me get it on!" I responded rather giddily. I plucked my helmet from him and danced around a bit, getting a better feel for it all. Aaah, armor I love you so. Jumping around for a few more seconds, my mind reminds me of pushing away my feelings. My happy jumping stops instantly.

"You okay Jenn?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah!" I chuckle, running a hand through my hair "I'm going to head for the boys, alright?"

Zach nodded in confirmation and I almost ran out of there, trying to calm myself down from the rampant thoughts buzzing in and around me. I know I shouldn't have pushed him away but I don't know what to do anymore. I tried to keep my ears open to listen for his footsteps following me. I couldn't hear any but he could just be that silent. I sighed, keeping my eyes trained to the area ahead of me. This would haunt me, I know it. I just hope this one question can be answered.

Should I abandon my feelings like I usually do in protection or actually step up for once even with the possibility of death hanging over me here?

-Zach-

Was it something I did? That was the first thought that ran through my head when Jenn almost had a freakout after we kissed for the very first time. She'd basically wrenched herself free of our embrace and had tried passing it off like absolutely nothing had happened. Something was bothering her. It was quite obvious that she was extremely uncomfortable with being near me, even as I helped her with the larger more complex parts of her armor she never once made eye contact, not once did she even say anything about why she was acting the way she was acting. But, before I could even ask her anything about it, we were right next to the teleporter where Sarge, Caboose, and Simmons were standing.

"About time you two got here," Sarge said, "We were about to leave you."

"You wouldn't have left us would you?" Jenn asked out of curiosity. Sarge just stared at her as if to say, really? But then Jenn figured out, "You know what forget I asked. Are we good?"

"I programmed ours myself, we're fine," Simmons said, quite proud of himself.

"I find the risks acceptable," Sarge said firmly, giving his nod of approval.

Then Jenn and I jumped in surprise at the sudden voice of Donut over the radio, "I never knew the Philips screwdriver was the X one. You think it's named after a guy named Philips? That Philips guy must have had a fucked up shaped head."

"Yeah screw this, I'm walking," the voice of Tucker said over the radio very unhappy with what he was going to have to do.

"That's Donut!" Jenn whispered over excitedly.

"Yeah I noticed," I replied firmly, unconsciously making my voice sound way more hostile and angry than I wanted to, "Tucker and Tex are there too."

"Omigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh, I totally forgot about Tex! She's like my favorite character ever!" Jenn giggled, bouncing up and down on her toes.

"Alright, saddle up. Don't worry Grif and Church, here comes the cavalry! Heyah!" Sarge yelled rushing into the teleporter directly in front of us, but just as quickly came back out right beside us through another one of the damned things, "-yah! Oh."

"Sir, the teleporter I reprogrammed is over there," Simmons said, pointing at the one in question.

"Oh well, heads up evil doers. Here we come to save the-oh forget it let's just go."

Sarge ran through the teleporter with Caboose and Simmons right behind him while Jenn and I were behind them. But before Jenn could run through the teleporter I took my chance to finally have talk with her about her rather odd behavior that she'd been exhibiting after we had kissed. I needed to know whether or not it was my fault that she had become nervous around me and seemed to want to forget what had happened. After all, I was her first kiss and that is something that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Had she wanted to give that privilege to someone else, someone she knew? I just had to know, and apologize if necessary.

"Jenn wait," I said, turning her around.

Her face was totally hidden behind her visor but her voice betrayed a hint of nervousness, "Zach we-we gotta go. You know the whole stop O'Malley thing!"

"I-I know but there's something that I need to know. After we uh kissed, you seemed to have a bit of a mini freakout. Was-was it something I did? Because if it is I'm very sorry, I don't know what came over me," I said, trying to say this to her in the nicest and most honest way I could.

"Zach it-it wasn't you, I'm sorry, it's just that I-I..."

"Come on you two! We have to get moving!" Sarge's voice barked out over the radio.

"Coming Sarge," I replied.

"Listen I know what I put you through, I'm sorry, but-but I just need some time to figure this out. Can we please talk about it after this? I mean after the whole explosion thing we'll have time. I promise," Jenn said, putting her hand on mine.

"Alright, I'll hold you to it."

With that somewhat settled Jenn ducked through the teleporter and then I followed her right on her heels. The classic burning and tingling sensation of the teleporter greeted every fiber of my being as I rushed in and rushed out within a second. The burning sensation was suddenly contrasted entirely with a sudden chill from the outside temperature of the icy canyon Sidewinder. I shivered slightly, walking to Jenn who was now firmly coated in black soot from the trip through the teleporter.

"Well, here comes Tex..." Jenn whispered, practically vibrating from excitement.

And within a few moments a single black figure jumped from the teleporter and ran off. It was Tex, in all her black armored, badass glory. She actually wasn't as big as I thought she was going to be. Her armor was a near spitting image of Jenn's with all the right curves and build that made her look like a girl. I remembered what ended u happening to Tex when she caught up with Wyoming and honestly had no intention of being bushwhacked by a Brit named Wyoming so I stayed as I heard Donut come jumping out.

"Yeah, I knew I could fix the teleporter, these hands aren't for manicuring after all," he said, then looked over to me, "Oh Sarge you never told me we got help. Hi new guy, I'm Franklin D. Donut."

"Hey, Zach, Zach Scott," I replied, nice to meet you.

"Ow! Crap!" Tucker yelled as soon as he came stumbling through the teleporter. He was completely coated in a coat of identical soot that Jenn's armor had been coated with.

"What's all that black stuff on your armor? It's just like what that Blue chick had on hers."

"What I'm not the only one? Oh wait you mean Tex? Her armor's painted black dipshit!" Tucker responded.

"No, the girl that came with Sarge, Caboose, Zach, and me. She took off with Tex when you guys got here," Simmons replied.

"What?!" I shouted, turning around to see that Jenn was indeed no where to be found, "Oh fuck."

"What? Blue Team got another girl, you know what that means!" Tucker shouted in glee.

"Finish that sentence and you will be sorry," I said defensively, pointing right at Tucker.

"Whoa, what's with your new rookie?" Tucker asked.

"He saved that Blue chick when she got shot at some base that they met Sarge and Caboose at. Ever since then they've been..."

Donut gasped out loud, "That's so romantic! It's just like Romeo and Juliet except they killed themselves at the end. Which seriously sucked. How long have you two been going out?"

"We just kissed once for the first time like ten minutes ago. We're not really going out, I don't think. It's complicated okay!" I snaped, looking out of the base for Jenn, knowing that she would be where Tex was.

"Well if you ever need relationship advice, I subscribe to this awesome magazine called..."

"Shutup Donut!" Sarge growled.

"Seriously, you're really killing the mood dude. Now I just have to get this stuff off of me, I need to write a letter to whoever makes these teleporters."

"Here, I'll help you, by rubbing you all over," Caboose offered.

"Oooh, let me help," Donut said, taking off after them to help.

I just ignored them and tried to find Jenn and Tex where ever they might have been. Jenn, had obviously gone a bit too ecstatic about seeing her favorite character run by her practically within arm's length and had probably wanted to try and be her friend, I mean wouldn't anyone want to be friends with their favorite character? I wanted to get onto Sarge's good side because he was my favorite character in the series, so I could understand Jenn's obsession with wanting to do the same thing. And then, I found them, standing on a cliff overlooking the middle of the canyon with two black armored figures standing side by side with one facing the other, her head bobbing slightly as she yapped away. That was probably Jenn.

-Jenn-

Alright, maybe this whole being stuck here has finally paid for itself. I was talking to Tex, sitting in Sidewinder. I never thought I would actually get to talk to her, much less get close to her. I was being a bit of a fangirl, and I knew I had to be careful with what I said because well I knew what was going to happen right? It was a simple talk at first, just telling her lies, unfortunately, that I had heard of the Freelancer's work and was impressed by the rumors around her work. I also told her about my personal works to get to the level that Freelancers could fight. I knew a bit about them, and she was surprised at first but it got easier. Then it dove into the whole 'Unsure about the relationship with Zach thing'.

I split everything to her: the sudden feelings when we met in Battle Creek, him getting me out of there, patching me up with the help of Sarge and Simmons and the kiss. I even told her about the mixed feelings I had and that obviously I was an almost atypical high school teenager.

"I don't know why but that's actually sounds funny" Tex chuckled. All I could do was groan and flop onto my butt.

"It's not! I have no clue what to do! Should I try and go with it or just go back to being partners forced to be here?!"

Tex took a quick look over at the cliff Wyoming would soon be on, looking for any sign of him. She sat down in front of me and poked at my visor.

"Look…I am in no way a good source for romance advice. Look where my skills got me and Church at. My only advice: Just try it. You never know if it could actually be good"

"I just don't want to get hurt again…." I mumbled, looking over the edge of the cliff. Was that Zach down there? I tried not to fidget when my FF tags came up and showed that it was Zach. Tex obviously caught my distress.

"That him?" Tex asked, nodding toward him.

I nodded, keeping my face down.

"Damn….a Red too? Good luck with that, but seriously, Jenn, just go for it. No one ever fell in love without taking a leap"

"That was rather poetic…..and cheesy, really cheesy" I chuckled, lifting my head up and smiling behind my visor. Tex shrugged.

"What do you expect? We're stranded out in the middle of a freezing little canyon somewhere in space. My advice is as effective as Tucker's flirting"

I chuckled a bit at the suddenly warm banter between us. Maybe I did something right, got her attention.

"Plus if he does anything wrong, I won't hesitate to kill his ass alright?"

I nodded softly. It seemed that I was making nice with her. She stood up from her seated place and taped my helmet.

"Don't forget…"

She quickly ran her wrist across the top of my helmet, wiping away a small patch of black soot from it to reveal the blue underneath.

"To show Blue pride as well"

Did I just get on her nice side? Did I just really get on her near nonexistent, locked away _nice side_? She looked over at the adjacent cliff and I could hear her whisper 'Got ya'.

"I won't…"

"Good. See you later Athens" She replied and went on her way toward Wyoming, if I'm correct.

I actually managed to get on Tex's good side. I got my favorite character to at least be friendly with me. I sighed as Tex walked off to her fate or being captured and tied up to a tree. I could stop her, or get her free myself but I knew my place. I couldn't fuck with the timeline, not that much. I leaned back on my hands for a moment, staring at the symbols and things on my HUD and getting caught up in my inner dialogue. Maybe Tex is right….I should at least try. I had nothing else waiting for me back home besides some shitty long distance friendships and the few meager friends I made online. Zach was here, in the same situation, and felt the same. I just don't know if I can hand my heart out again.

When this is all said and done with, what then? I go back home on the East Coast, he stays in Texas. I'll have no way to get even close to him. Would it really be okay to take advantage of this place and just have this relationship?

I can't decide yet, and all I can do is curl up and let Red vs Blue go on. I kept my eyes on the cliff where Wyoming was. Sooner or later, after Tucker was cleaned and Donut totally making it seem like he's gay, Tex would show up on the cliff behind him. I kind of wished that she didn't always fail and stuff.

"Hey Jenn!"

I looked down at the bottom of the cliff and Zach was still there, ushering me down and probably back toward the action of things. We did have Sarge plotting and ignoring Grif, Church and Grif escaping, and the soon to come explosion. I took one last sigh and slid down the face of the cliff, landing heavy on my feet in front of Zach.

"We heading for Sarge and the rest of them right?" I asked, standing up and making sure I didn't hurt myself on the way down.

"Yeah and seriously what the hell?"

"What the hell what?" Confuzzled time! What was the problem? All I did was talk to Tex!

"Running off to make nice with Tex? Are you that much of a fangirl?"

"Yes, is there a problem?" I bit back at him, standing my ground on my love for my favorite Freelancer. He had a favorite too, I know it! There is nothing wrong with trying to get to be friends with them!

"You know what….it's okay. Come on, O'Malley should be capturing Tex and heading for the rest of them soon"

He took hold of my wrist and tugged me along as we ran for the congregating group of remaining Reds and Blues. I took a quick look back before Wyoming disappeared out of sight, and I could just see black armor come into view. I turned back around and tried my best to keep up with him as we made it back to our teams. All the while O'Malley-Doc was showing up behind Tex and holding a shotgun to the back of her head, proving Tex's point that O'Malley had teamed up with Wyoming.


	4. Hello Halo 2 and Inflamed Ties

-Zach-

I have no idea why I keep following her, but I do. But this time seemed to be alright. She wasn't in any real danger, and neither was I at the moment. At least I thought so. Man what I wouldn't give to have my phone with me to look up these episodes. Wait a minute, my phone!

"Jenn, hold on a second," I said, stopping in my tracks and started digging in my chest piece cavity where I think I put my phone when I had first put my armor on.

"What is it now? Don't you know what's about to happen?" she groaned, throwing her head back in frustration.

"No, well-wait, here!" I cheered, pulling out my old slightly cracked iPhone 4S.

"Is that your phone? What're you doing with your phone? If you're wanting my number that won't really work all that well out here. I don't think we have service," Jenn chuckled.

"Yeah it's my phone. I put it in here because I didn't have pockets when I first put on this armor when I was getting ready to go to RTX."

"And what does that mean exactly?" Jenn asked, annoyed at such a trivial thing.

"Well I'm not sure, but I think that we..."

"Hahaha! You foolish fools have fallen right into my hands! Only now do you realize the folly of your follies! Muhaha! Prepare for an oblivion, for which there is no preparation."

"Oh crap come on, O'Malley's already starting. This is it, come on," Jenn said, running to join the rest of the Reds and Blues who were at the bottom of the canyon aiming their weapons at O'Malley who was sitting up there ranting and cackling.

I quickly shoved my phone into my chest piece and ran to catch up. I nearly slipped a few times in the thin snow and ice until I came to stand next to Jenn alongside Tucker and Sarge with my pistol pointed up at O'Malley and waited as it all began. O'Malley/Doc stood defiantly on top of the ledge in his purple armor, holding a plasma pistol looking scanner thing. On his back was O'Malley's signature rocket launcher, waiting for its use against us. I knew that he'd turn that thing on us very soon, so I planned a route to the nearest cover, and waited.

"O'Malley, the Reds and Blues are working together now, you can't hope to beat us," Simmons defiantly called up.

"You fools! My metallic friend is the only ally I need," O'Malley then turned to Lopez, who was out of sight from us down at the bottom of the snow and ice covered canyon, "Lopez, activate weather control routine."

I could barely make out the robotic, "Okay," from above us and then I saw a bright blue light and then numerous symbols started swirling around Lopez and I realized they actually did look pretty cool.

"Are those runic symbols or signs of some ancient technology?" Simmons shouted up in curiosity.

"No, I use to draw them on my binder during study hall. I've always wanted to use them for something," the voice of Doc called out, "Aren't they cool?"

"Shutup!" O'Malley cried out to his host.

I couldn't help but chuckle then before I could stop myself I also joined in the dialogue, "They actually are kinda cool."

"Shut it Red Romeo," Sarge barked at me.

"Oh hey there, I didn't notice your fine figure come on down this way," Tucker said, his voice moving into flirtation mode as he finally set eyes on Jenn.

"Not now!" Jenn growled without paying Tucker any mind.

"Oooh playing hard to get, I like that."

The air was now buzzing with electricity as the clouds overhead were now beginning to darken and rumble ominously, far off lightning began to light up the sky as it drew nearer to us and the now activated Lopez.

"Oh Samson's backhair, they discovered our secret weapon. I was developing a weather control device but I was missing one critical piece of technology to make it work," Sarge moaned, realizing what was happening.

"Yes, and now that I have located those D-Batteries, the universe will be mine! Hahaha!" O'Malley cackled, and every single one of us turned to Sarge.

"Are you serious? You couldn't find D-Batteries?" Tucker groaned.

"Only at gas stations, and they're just so darned expensive there."

Then I heard boot steps crunching the snow underfoot and a low ticking noise. I spun around, weapon in hand and saw the cobalt armor of Church himself, the Alpha, standing right in front of me.

"What's going on? And who the fuck are these two?"

"You want the long version or the short?" Sarge asked, but kept going anyway, "Basically you've got a fifteen mega-ton bomb in your gut-"

"Ten sir," Simmons interrupted.

"-And Lopez is about to kill us all! And worse still our reinforcements have fallen in love!"

"That doesn't make any sense, what's the long version?" Church asked.

"That was the long version, the short version is 'we're boned,'" Tucker groaned, "Those two literally."

"Hey why you..." Jenn growled, not too pleased with the extremely lewd comment Tucker had just made.

I grabbed, Jenn's wrist before she turned loose on Tucker and then pulled her close to me, just to keep it safe. And another feeling felt like it was welling up inside too: anger and resentment. Had I really just gotten mad at Tucker for saying that about me, about us?

"Hey Grif, you okay?" I heard Simmons ask, and then turned to see that Grif had walked up to him with a seriously fake ghetto swagger.

"I've done hard time Simmons, I'm not the man you used to know," Grif said, his voice low and foreboding.

"Hard time?" Simmons asked, "We were only separated five hours."

"Time moves slower on the inside Simmons, it felt like seven or eight hours to me."

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a rocket came streaking over our heads and then hit the ground not fifteen yards away. Everyone ducked down instinctively as dust and bits of rock and ice fell down from the explosion. Every muscle seemed to stiffen as I heard O'Malley cackle once again and saw his rocket launcher squarely aimed a us.

"You foolish fools will never defeat me!" O'Malley cried out.

"Come on!" I yelled, grabbing Jenn by the wrist and started ran to one of the trees close to the canyon wall.

"Alright," Jenn replied, and quickly fired off a few rounds at O'Malley/Doc as he jumped down to ground level.

Everyone scattered and took off running towards any piece of cover they could find. Church and Donut went straight for some of the rocks near Sarge and Grif. Simmons and Caboose took cover behind one of the trees where I remembered that he would be calling out for Sarge and Grif to hold off O'Malley. Lightning now began to rain down all over the canyon. Dark clouds rumbled and convulsed angrily as the battle raged. Gunshots rang out from all the Reds and Blues trying to fight back but doing so all so poorly. I ran towards the rocks with Jenn in close proximity until I looked behind to see if Jenn was still behind me.

"Zach!" Jenn yelled as she pointed at something.

I had no idea what she could have been pointing at, no clue. But then for one split second I saw the tell tale smoke trail from a rocket arcing right towards me with it leading all the way back to the cackling O'Malley. I just managed to pick out the rocket itself and its yellow flaming motor right before it hit the ground four feet in front of me between me and Jenn. I looked at Jenn, not really scared, but shocked. I had no inclination as to what would happen to me. My concern, oddly was for her. She too was close to the rocket's point of impact, but not nearly as close as I was.

"No!"

The explosion was loud, very loud. I felt the concussion equivalent to getting hit by a truck on every inch of my body. I felt myself magically lifted into the air as red hot burning sensations ripped through my chest, arms, and legs. My visor seemed to crack once then nearly shatter as a piece of shrapnel more than three inches long wedged itself inches from my right cheek bone. The sudden flight I had taken ended unceremoniously with a simple hard slap on the back as I crashed onto the snow and sent it pillowing out like dust. I knew the armor had been punctured, but how bad I had no idea. But worse still, I couldn't feel anything but hot burning pain. No cold air hitting skin, no feeling in my fingers of toes. All that seemed to exist was pain crawling through most of my chest my thighs, and my arms.

I began tasting the metallic taste of blood seeping through my lips, attempting to escape. My vision began fading rapidly in and out as I unconsciously moved my head side to side. I saw a green doorway open and a dozen red and blue forms run through it all at once weapons raised. But I couldn't hear them. All I could hear was a high pitched ringing screeching uncontrollably through my head. A lower pitched voice cried out through the din, and then my vision was blocked out by a single blue and black figure kneeling by my side. I felt my head raise up off of the snow in someone's arms as I tried to strain to see through the cracked visor and the piece of metal sticking into it. But as my eyes finally began to close with an exhaustion I'd never know I was able to pick out words that I knew, from someone I now knew I loved.

"Zach! Zach! I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

-Jenn-

No no no no no no, not like this. Not him, please for fucks sakes, don't take him away from me. For Christ's sake, why did O'Malley aim for us?! Why did it hit him? I don't know what to do! I had no clue, I wasn't a soldier, or a cadet or anything! All I am is a fangirl who writes and draws, and I didn't know how to help him! Everything looked bad, his visor just shattered, there was blood, I felt sick and….and

_'No…no not now, I can't have an anxiety attack now…'_

I took several quick breaths of air, summoning all I could to calm myself. If Zack could do it for me, I can do it for him. He looked worse than me when I got shot, and now he was dying in my arms and I could barely make out the others starting to notice us and I can't breathe. MY arms hurt, my head hurts. Where was…

_'STOP! Stop it! I will not have a panic attack now! H-help him dammit, do something!'_

Were they talking to me? Was Sarge pointlessly trying to disarm Church's bomb? Was I seeing things that Tucker and Donut were running at me? I don't know, everything was so fuzzy and unrecognizable. Was Tex free, did Tex make it?

"Oh my god, Zach! Blue girl, what happened?"

Donut? Donut, you're supposed to be with the others. Who was pulling me up? No! No, put me down I need to help him!"

"GET OFF ME!"

"Relax, new girl! We need help over there alright?"

"Tucker, what the hell, I needed to save Zach! I wasn't going to let him die here! I will not be Juliet in this situation! Let me go!"

"I'll get Zach, new blue girl okay? Tucker, try to keep her calm" Donut instructed, getting Zach from the ground and putting him on his back.

"Let me…Tucker, I need to help him! LET ME GO, stop touching me! I need to help him…."

"Well we're all about to be blown to smithereens, so it'll have to wait!" Tucker argued back. "I don't want to miss Church being blown up from the inside out!"

Please Tucker, let me go. I need…what do I need?! How the hell did this happen?! Please, for fucks sake let this end! I didn't know what was going on, where I was taken, all I know is that I heard was a sniper rifle shot, Tucker cursing and then some ringing and beeping like something was ready to blow up. Were we near Church? I don't understand…

_'Stop! Church is about to-'_

Nothing, it was just….nothing at first. The bomb in Church's stomach must have exploded. IT was all white and serene, though my ears were ringing. I felt….calm. Nothing felt wrong. I felt peaceful because I could just make out Zach. Why was he here when we went back in time?

It all changed when we were suddenly thrown into spirals and stars and warping objects, and the blood started to spill.

It was everywhere, the coppery smell fermenting everything I could touch and smell. It made me want to vomit, it made me scared. Pinwheels of white and black whirled around in open gravity around me, sending me everywhere. I was floating along a stream of blood and it soaked into me and my hair, all I could make out was the feeling of it on me. It was a nightmare time travel. I could see the others in the background of my horror. I had to bear with just floating around in my time traveling nightmare, hitting a random grandfather clock that broke as it hit me, shattering it into pieces of oak and numbers. I curled up, trying to think and suddenly it clicked. What the blood was. It made me remember that I was about to lose Zach. Zach?! Where was here, all I can see is black and white and blood!

"ZACH!"

I screamed for all I was worth, to see if Zach was here. It was his blood, I know it. Where was everyone again?! Where was Zach, how'd I get here?!

_'It hurts….to breathe again. Stop thinking about it, it hurts….'_

"... whoa no! Heads up boys, prepare for impact!" I could hear Sarge shout, and suddenly it was like a long hallway in front of me, and I was slowly sucked into the middle of it, the little shining dot at the end. It was all black and dark again. I could still smell blood and feel it on me. Where was I?

I could make out the feeling of something sandpaper-y on my back and arms, even through the undersuit. Did we make it? My eyes burned and watered at the same time, the bright sunlight hitting my eyes like spears and daggers. Carefully I looked up at the sky, seeing blurry rocky formations in the sky, similar to a cliff. The sky wasn't blue or cloudy, but brown and tan, hazing dark brown clouds leisurely crossing in front of the sun. I didn't know the name of the map, but I recognized it from Halo 2. We really made it to the future.

Every came back quickly and I struggled to get up from my sand bed, brushing it off quickly and sprinting god knows where, desperate in my search for Zach. Who knows how bad he is now, sitting in sand and slowly bleeding out to death, oblivious to the world he would leave. I don't want him to leave, give him back!

"Zach? Sarge, Tucker, where are you?!" I screamed, my voice hoarse though. I felt weak as I slumped down to my knees, mistakenly hitting the beginnings of a slope. I slid down it rather fast, actually catapulting to my face and rolling the rest of the way down, hitting the bottom face up. My HUD was twitchy, telling me the heat index and bringing up choppy radar readings. Nothing was showing up. I was alone or so far away from the others that I couldn't pick them up. It was pointless now…..Zach wasn't in any reachable distance and my lungs hurts. I wouldn't be able to save him anyway.

I was useless. How the hell did we fall in love with one another?

"I'm sorry Zach…I'm so sorry" I started to sob, only to start coughing hard. Damn this place, my lungs hurt. Did my….my anxiety contribute to it? I can't remember. I sat up, adjusting my helmet so I could finally take it off and shake the sand out of it. I dragged my hands through my hair, pulling at constant knots and tangles-curse my curly hair-and trying to see if…if there was anything else in it. Besides what was drying on my hands, arms, breast plate and legs, I was blood free. It still stung and freaked me out that I could lose him here before we went home. Where the hell did he end up anyway, did he even end up here? Maybe he was blown into the past?!

_'No, no no….he wasn't, we were in front of Church, right? Donut….had him, right?'_

I reluctantly stood up again, wiping away beads of sweat already collecting on my forehead. As I reluctantly put back on my helmet, I just stared….walking anywhere. I didn't play Halo 2 much anymore so the map and anything else was almost completely unknown. I just hoped I would stumble onto someone. My side was aching again. I fingered at the healed wound, picking at the black undersuit like a lifeline. It calmed my random little burst of oncoming panic attack. It reminded me that I was saved by him. It was both a safety line and a knife in my heart each time a memory bubbled to the surface. It could all be pointless if I don't find Zach and get him fixed up.

I was diving into a depressive anxious mess when I finally saw the boys up in one of the bases, probably while they were trying to explain to Tucker what happened. I let my lungs finally have some relief, coughing out the random cobwebs building up again. It caught Donut's attention and soon the team was helping me up to their level.

"Hey there Corinth!" Caboose yelled at me. "Look at how shiny we are!"

"I can see that Caboose…" I weakly smiled behind my visor. Tucker seemed to be giving me a once-over, and that didn't start anything well in my head. I should have kicked him or something for checking me out at such a time, but it reminded me too much…..

All I could seem to do was start shaking, the slow beginnings of a panic attack.

"Y-you guys haven't seen or found Zach b-by any chance?" I asked rather meekly, my hands shaking uncontrollably. It was going to happen, I know it. I was going to break down into a hysterical, anxiety attacked mess. If they said they found him dead….

"Lucky for you, and for me, we did. He's over there a ways just-"

Before I could let Sarge finish, I was rushing over to the suddenly visible propped up body of Zach, skidding on my knees the last foot up to him. Throwing my helmet off, I took his head in my head, trying to see if he was awake or even still breathing. The teams stood awkwardly behind me, unsure of what to do. I didn't know either. He was still out of it, and shards of metal and visor glass still in his right cheek. He was pale, unbelievably pale, and I immediately started to lose it, my body taken hold by tremors and uncontrollable anxiety.

"He's not dead right? H-he can't be, he's just unconscious. Are there any med kits, Sarge please tell me he's okay?!" I screamed, my shoulders starting to curl up. Tears falling, everything suddenly dead around me, I was lost to the sudden panic attack all focused on Zach's well-being. I'm supposed to keep him alive, he did it for me. I needed to help him.

"Jenn relax…." Donut started to say but it just made it worse. I curled up into myself, hands struggling to keep holds on my sides. Everything left the floodgates as they opened for the Reds and Blues.

"HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING?! Were you that focused on Tucker's sudden mistaken memory to forgot him? Is he okay, is he still bleeding? Did I lose him?! You could have easily looked through this shithole of a base, or this endless desert to find a med kit or anything to save him! JUST TELL ME HE'S OKAY! Please just fucking tell me, it hurts! I….I…I just…"

It got no farther, and I was pulled away from him and up against blurry pink armor. I didn't care if they saw this, or even what anyone thought of it. I sobbed into Donut's offered shoulder, babbling on and on, and Donut just let me ride out my panic attack as if he was used to it. I shut out the rest of them, and focused on Donut's softly spoken words of calming and what I had of Zach. Everything just hung in the balance, hovering over an endless pit and all I had was string to keep me up. It hurt to think anymore so I let everything fade, and let myself do what I wanted.

"Donut, you traitor, what are you doing?!" Sarge demanded. Donut quickly looked up at Sarge, keeping me pressed up against him.

"Don't you understand Sarge? She's having a _panic_ attack! She needs a shoulder to cry on and I will not stand for her to cry like this alone!"

Sarge backed off a bit, looking down at me, then to Donut, then to Zach and repeating it until he finally let it slide and signaled his team to relax for a bit, and for Simmons to find something, anything, to save the iffy new recruit. I didn't listen to the rest, unable really to. Everything started to bubble and collect up again into another harsh wave of anxious nerves.

Donut stayed with me on the ground, just keeping me close and letting me sob and scream out everything in hysterical fits of anxiousness. The others…..I didn't know what they did. My vision was slowly going from blurry to black and I couldn't make out my words. It didn't take long but I sunk out of my panic attack into the walls of unconsciousness and my own mind.

The last little thought I could remember clearly was that I hoped that Zach would never find out about this, or maybe it was for the Reds and Blues to get Zach back on his feet.

-Zach-

Pain, that was the first thing that came screaming into my mind. A sudden piercing pain unlike anything I had felt before awoke me from a pit of darkness. I'd had no idea where I was, all I sense was the smell of anesthetic and the unbearable heat of a hot dry sun. My eyes popped open, nearly blinding me from the sudden exposure to light. I instantly shut them again, groaning softly at my intense discomfort. I felt like I had been run over by a truck, and that is not a feeling you want to wake up to. I tried to bring my hand up to massage my eyes and try and block out some of the light but I then felt my arm pinned down suddenly by a strong force that felt like it was on my bare skin. I then heard voices, familiar voices.

"Whoa whoa, easy there," I first heard, it was Simmons.

"You've been through Hell dude! I'm surprised you're not dead," another voice said, it was Tucker.

"Wh-what? Where?" I groaned, finally chancing a look around me.

"Shh...shh..." I then heard Donut say, "You need to just calm down, you've been out a long time. But don't worry, we took care you."

"Donut?" I groaned, seeing a simple pink blur in my vision beside an orange, maroon, red, and turquoise blurs.

"Your injuries were fairly severe. Thankfully, the medkit we found did the job just dandy," Sarge said as my vision slowly returned to normal.

"Oh by the way, I think that Blue chick is head over heels in love with you," Grif said, "She totally flipped out when she saw you wounded like that."

"What Blue chi-" I started to say, still not entirely focused, "Jenn!"

I tried to sit up, remembering Jenn, but then a sudden intense pain sot through my chest in response to the sudden movement. I was forced down by Simmons and Sarge with their hands on my shoulders. I stayed totally still, letting the pain continue to rush through my chest. But soon enough I was able to be leaned against the dusty cracked wall of the half destroyed base we were sheltering under. I noticed then that I was completely out of my armor, and where I'd been badly wounded there were slightly red bandages, my black undersuit was perforated with the holes from my close encounter with a rocket and my right cheek also had a bandage stuck to it. My mouth was very dry, still tasting like blood, which was not a very nice taste at all.

"Where's Jenn? Is she alright?" I asked, trying to see if she was okay, they'd told me that she went crazy when she had seen me wounded and I needed to know if she was okay, and to let her know I was alright.

"Oh her? She had a total panic attack when you were hurt and passed out. Caboose is keeping an eye on her," Donut said, "She was really upset when she saw you. Man, you two must be head over heels in love!"

"Can you," I winced, trying to get up, "Can you take me to her? Is she awake?"

"Uh I don't think so," Grif responded, "We told Caboose to tell us when she woke up."

"But this is Caboose we're talking about, she could be having a tea party with him for all we know, or be dead. Take your pick," Tucker shrugged.

"A tea party?! You never said that they were having a tea party!" Donut gasped, beginning to get really excited.

"No Donut, it was just an example."

"Well if we were, I would throw the best tea party you all have ever seen, you're all invited if you want to come."

"No!" everyone said.

"Maybe!" Simmons said, then stopped when he saw that everyone was looking at him, "Uh, I mean no..."

"I think we need to go check on her, now that Zach's awake I don't want to deal with another Blue having a panic attack," Sarge said, and turned to go see where Jenn was.

"Oh never mind," Tucker said, seeing a shadow then turned to see Jenn come walking around the corner with Caboose by her side.

"She's awake Sergeant!" Caboose called out.

"We see that idiot," Tucker growled in annoyance.

"Zach!" Jenn practically screamed, and charged past everyone to stop right by me.

"Jenn-ow!" I cried out when she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight and painful hug.

"Sorry!" she said, and pulled back, allowing me to lean back against the wall and feel the pain die down again, "You okay? Is he okay?" Jenn asked, turning to me then to the rest of the Reds and Blues.

"I'm fine, just hurt," I said.

I could it in Jenn's eyes, she'd been crying, a lot. Her eyes were just beginning to return to normal after being puffed and red. Her hair was disheveled and dirty and her cheeks were pink from the heat. I could tell that the so called panic attack that the gang had described was real, and had happened while I was out. She was completely enamored with me, my bandages, my wounds, everything. She did really care and was showing an almost troubling amount of care to trying to be sure I was okay.

"I think we should leave you two alone," Sarge grumbled.

"Aww...but I wanna watch," Donut whined.

"Shutup Donut, he's not dying any time soon, there'll be another time"

Jenn and I looked at the Reds and Blues as they filed out, grabbing their weapons as they left. This left Jenn and I alone, for the first time since leaving the teleporter room.

"Jenn you alright?" I asked, seeing her eyes start to water.

She didn't respond, she just leaned in and pressed her lips against mine and kissed me with a pent up passion that was channeling all the hardship and stress she must have gone through since I got hurt. The kiss was passionate, desperate even, it was a totally different kiss than our first kiss. It lasted for several seconds, with her clenching her hands on my cheeks and running them through my hair. She finally pulled back and kept her hands on my face as she stared almost desperately into my eyes.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered her tears still hovering in her eyes.

"So did I," I responded, "But I guess we were both wrong."

"Zach I-I'm sorry," she said, her voice trembling.

"For what?" I asked, now my own curiosity peeking at what she'd said.

"For what I did before, after we'd kissed. I was scared," she said, running her hands through my hair, going to the back of my neck.

"Scared?"

"Yeah I've..." she said, but stopped. Her hand brushed through my hair and then I felt a very sensitive cold feeling in the back of my upper neck. She silently felt it, tracing along its cold lines. It was something that I hadn't noticed before.

"Jenn?"

"Lean forward," she quietly ordered, fear working into her voice, and I silently complied, and she shifted to be in a position for her to see what it was that she had felt. Then she gasped, "Oh my God."

Then she shot a hand to the back of her own neck and her eyes widened, the sadness and fear gone, replaced with fear.

I silently turned her shoulders and she complied, and I brushed her hair away to be able to see what it was that had made her so scared. And then I saw it, it was a piece of metal barely poking out of the back of her neck right where her spine connected to her skull. It was barely an inch long and maybe a few millimeters thick. It was steel gray, with the skin pink and tender around it. It had just been put in.

"Oh God," I mumbled, many things flashing through my mind.

"Did they do that?" Jenn asked.

"No," I replied, my own fear seeping into my voice, "Freelancer did."


	5. Danger in the Waters

-Zach-

"What are we gonna do?" Jenn asked, her eyes now showing a deep fear that I too felt chilling my own blood, "If Freelancer finds out who we are then…"

"Calm down Jenn, calm down," I said to Jenn, but I felt that it was more for my benefit that it was hers, "We'll be alright, all these…things in our necks mean is that an A.I. can infect us. If we just play it smart then we'll be fine."

"But what if it isn't?" Jenn said again, "What if these aren't for A.I. but they're for monitoring thoughts?"

"Well, if that were the case then we probably wouldn't be here. They would have heard our thoughts already and have us locked in a cell."

Jenn shivered at the thought as she sat down next to me and leaned against the wall with her armored shoulder barely touching my left side, "Well, at least we're okay. Sarge said your armor took most of the impact and the shrapnel."

"Yeah, wait, hold on. Where is my armor?" I asked, just now realizing that it wasn't anywhere in sight.

"I think Sarge might have taken it to try and repair it and get those holes filled in. He said that there was an armor repair kit under some of this rubble he could use."

"Good, that's one bit of good news."

Jenn nodded in agreement, and we sort of sat there silently under the shade of our little shelter where I hadn't been able to move since I'd regained consciousness. She toyed with her armor, plucking at the hole in her black undersuit where she had been initially shot. My own attention went to my completely unarmored self. I looked like a backwards Dalmatian, with white blocks of bandages all over my chest, arms, and upper legs. I now understood how vulnerable and exposed Jenn had felt when she had realized that she was not wearing her own armor not too long ago. The perforated suit still hugged my chest, arms, and legs, basically broadcasting my own hard earned physique. I wasn't ripped by any stretch, but I was defined and I guess Jenn realized that as every time she looked at me a slight blush crept over her cheeks as we just waited for one of the guys to come back.

They'd gone out on a scouting mission to try and find Tex or anything useful for the foreseeable future. So they'd left us with a pair of pistols and some water canteens from a spring that Caboose had apparently found underneath the base.

"How long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Jenn asked.

"Huh? Oh I don't know, maybe a few hours. It didn't really say exactly how long they were stuck out here in the show did it?" I responded, myself not too sure.

"Now I wish I had watched a little more of this season," Jenn grumbled as she toyed around with a small pebble on the ground.

"Me too," I replied, but we were then interrupted by Sarge walking up to us.

"Good news," he announced, "we found a jeep. That means we can drive out of here!"

"Sweet," Jenn said, "did you find anything else?"

"Nope, just the jeep. Looks like it's a bit beat up but nothing a bit of duct tape and a wrench can't fix."

"What about my armor?" I asked, "Where is it?"

"Oh yeah I forgot," Sarge said, "I had Simmons patch it up for ya. Should be good as new. But you may want to wait for those wounds to heal up first."

"And how long will that take?" Jenn asked.

"A day, maybe two. It all depends on the strength of those healing bandage things we found in the med kit. If they're all up to date you should be back on your feet by tomorrow. If not, well there's no telling."

"Great," I growled, toying with the white bandages in question, hoping that they would do the job Sarge said they would do.

"How long will the jeep take to fix?" Jenn asked.

"Oh about a day or two. When we're done Zach will be his normal Blue seducing self," Sarge responded.

"Bow chicka bow wow!"

"Shutup Tucker!" Jenn screamed. I looked back at her with a look of amazement at the sudden rather drastic outburst from her, "What? I gotta defend my boyfriend don't I?"

I felt a massive blush spread over my cheeks. Did she just call me her boyfriend? And when I tried talking I came out sounding like my tongue was struggling to keep up with my head, "B-boyfriend?"

She nodded accordingly with a smug smile on her face and gave me a quick peck on the lips, basically confirming what she said via actions. All I could do was smile a stupid happy smile as she leaned back and then both of us remembered Sarge was standing right in front of us. But now Donut too was right there.

"Aww…how sweet!"

-Jenn-

I sort of don't know why exactly I pulled the boyfriend card but it felt right to use it against Tucker. Tucker needed to understand he was not by any means try to hit or flirt with me….unless I allow it; well now with Zach I think its null and void, my idea. Oh well, at least I felt a little better now about this relationship.

"Thank you Donut….." I smiled at him, speaking in a manner that obviously said I favored him. I always have a soft spot for Donut, he's so….flamboyant. That's all I could think of without calling him outright gay, which I wouldn't. Donut seemed to approve of my approval of his approval, if that made any sense. Sarge seemed to grumble incoherently, probably looking at us in disapproval, dissatisfaction or just annoyance.

"You did say he was a Blue seducer Sarge, you'll have to get used to it for a while"

He seemed to huff out something along the lines of 'I know, I know' and seemed to move on, if I'm thinking right, toward the battered Warthog. Donut knew he had to follow and quickly caught up with him. I really had hoped I would stop him before he petted the bunny and he hurt himself in the soup can but I had Zach to basically guard so I was stuck in the base. I stood up and looked over to the guys as they clustered around the Warthog. My fangirl senses flared as I watched Simmons jump into the Jeep next to Grif. Calm, Jenn, calm you must not fangirl at the shipping moment.

"So what now Zach? Wait it out for the guys to fix the Puma?" I asked, looking over at him. "Or just get comfy?"

"I can't exactly go anywhere so…."

"Good point" I chuckled. I grabbed for my canteen and took a quick swig. "Nothing to do…"

Nothing to do but think again.

"Hey, I'm going to explore a bit. You okay without me? I don't want you getting captured by something from the hills"

"The Hills have eyes?"

"You got the joke!" I shouted. "But seriously, you good?"

It was stupid to ask but a small part of me still worried deeply for him and his condition. I still couldn't bring myself to admit it was my fault that he was almost killed because of my shut down. He nodded and adjusted in his spot against the wall. I gave one good look back and went on my way, walking around the base, trapped in the tackling thoughts shooting out one rampant thought after another. My mind was getting ahead of itself, shutting out any other possibilities and jumping to the worst case scenario all over again.

My heart thudded in my rib cage, making me squeak. I was getting scared again! Why the hell does this always happen?! I accepted it already, let it stop! I want this, and I don't care!

_'But you do. You'll be left with nothing after this'_ a snide voice in my head whispered. _'He'll hurt you'_

He wouldn't. He never would, because we needed our strength to get out here. Stupid head, I love him!

_'This isn't a Disney film'_ it hissed again, _'you know not to trust him'_

I want to. Let me trust him. We've saved each other's lives now, I owe it to him now, and I pulled the damned boyfriend card already! Stop it, go away! You're wrong, I made up my mind. Tex was right; I should just go for it! Worry about everything else later!

_'He'll hurt you like every other boy before him, and you don't have anyone to help you through the pain this time'_

"STOP IT!"

Tripping from plain blindness and sudden forgetfulness on where I was walking, I tumbled down to the sand surrounding the base, smashing my face into it and seizing a mouthful of the crap. As I sat up and spat away the sand, my head rebelled against me again. He wasn't here, trying to help. He was with the Reds, ignoring me and letting me go. He was taking orders from Sarge, attacking me and betraying me.

No one to help me through the mental pain.

_'Even if you survive, what then? You're blue, and he's red. You go separate ways. No long distance relationships last'_

I shook my head in denial of my mental voice. We would make it work. We are children of the 21st century, people who know technology and ways to communicate. We know this stuff! We will make it work, no matter what!

_'You sure you're not in denial of the possibility of damage?'_ It snickered at me. _'Think for a moment'_

I sank back on my knees, fighting back sudden tears. Why was my mind such a maze of right and wrong, feelings and protection? Why did my life make me so closed to what I wanted? Could this even work anymore? After this…..after this, I don't know but I'm scared again of this relationship, uncertain in my steps to either further it or push it away.

Once again, I ask myself should I give in or let it slip like usual and for the first time I can't answer.

I lost hold of time, unable to tell how long I sat in the sand. I didn't really care but I shook myself free of sand and pulled myself up, trudging in every step, fearing my next encounter with Zach. My mind buzzed on this relationship, but it buzzed as well on the AI slot in my neck, courtesy of Freelancer.

Was I being tracked? Did they know my thoughts? Did they figure out we're from the real world, not this series timeline?

I rubbed my throbbing forehead, focusing on my temples for added measure. I was thinking myself to physical pain.

_'It's begun then'_

"Shut up and stay quiet" I snapped under my breath. My head still hurt as I walked my way around, continuing my personal search for anything. I remembered the spring Caboose had found and found an entrance into the underground labyrinth of the base. Low and behold, a soft underwater spring rested in two separate pools, one with a waterfall and one with a smaller one simply keeping it from going stagnant.

I really needed to wash off the crap on me. Could I, should I?

Before I could answer for real, I started tugging off pieces of armor, piling it up on the edge of the smaller waterfall pool. The larger pieces were fun to pick off but they came off as well and all that was left was the black undersuit. Take it off or leave it on?

I started trying to figure out how to take it off and found a convenient zipper on the back. All I did my zip it down and peel out of the skin tight suit and rest it with the armor. Left in only underwear and nothing on top, I dove in, grateful for the fact that it had some good depth to it.

Fuck it. I'll take this risk for once. I could take this risk right now anyway. It kept my mind off of this relationship enough for me to enough myself for a little swim.

-Zach-

Being hurt sucks, you can't move, and when you have no one around to talk to you it sucks even more. But I managed to shuffle over to a point where I could look down at the wreckage turned Warthog that the Reds were working on. Donut had already gotten his hand, well fucked up, and Sarge working on getting it out of what I guess was the crankshaft to the drive train or maybe an exposed gear box. He was definitely in a lot of pain, but characteristically the Reds didn't care in the least. So we Sarge decided to just fix what Donut had screwed up and then pulled him out from under the Warthog by his ankle and then had Grif and Simmons help him back to where I was.

"Dammit Donut, how hard is it to not touch shit," Sarge said as they rounded the corner into the shade.

"I just wa-wanted to p-pet the bunny," Donut whimpered as he sat down to the side of me and Sarge growled as he pulled over a first aid kit.

"Simmons check Scott's bandages, see how he's doing," Sarge ordered.

"Yes sir," Simmons said and turned to me, "Uh…Sarge wants me to check your bandages…" he said, wringing his hands together nervously.

"Yeah I heard, I'm wounded not deaf," I replied, a little weirded out by Simmons's hesitance to check my bandages.

"Yeah so umm…"

"Why are you so nervous Simmons?" Grif asked.

"I'm not very good at handling this type of thing!"

"A little insecure about your masculinity there Simmons?"

"No!"

"Is that why you wear your underwear in the shower?" Grif asked, chuckling even more now that Simmons was the center of attention.

"No! Just-shutup Grif!" Simmons growled, finally taking a deep breath and began nervously going over my bandages one at a time.

When he peeled them away to check on them and my wounds it hurt like hell. The bandages had been coated with some type of advanced substance that could accelerate healing and thus had to be firmly pressed against the wounded area of the body where they were needed. So it formed a kind of seal like tape. And if you've ever pulled tape off of a bad cut it hurts. Which is why when Simmons pulled them off to check them I tensed up as the stinging pain shot through me. It wasn't that bad, but it was painful because there were a lot of bandages to do this process with.

"Fuck!" I yelled when he peeled away the one on my right cheek and took some growing stubble of beard with it, "Easy!"

"Oh quit whining! You baby," Sarge spoke up as he began wrapping gauze around Donut's hand after disinfecting it.

"Who was that to?" I asked as Simmons pushed the bandage back into place after checking to be sure it was alright to do so.

Donut too was whining and whimpering as Sarge continued to work on Donut. His hand really was messed up. His fingers looked like they'd been caught in a door then had the door kicked in. They continually dripped blood which landed on his armor plates. This made him whine even more through the pain. His main concern was the pain in his hand, but he had a great deal of concern for the way the blood would affect his armor. I remembered that blood dries into a brownish color on cloth, and this was apparently what Donut was afraid might happen.

"But Sarge, when the blood dries it'll be a ghastly brown color. Brown and lightesh red look so horrible together, especially in polka dot," Donut whined, but yelped when Sarge pressed the bandage down to get the healing agents coating the bandage to work their way into his hand to get repairing the damage.

"Is that seriously your number one concern right now? You could have lost your fucking fingers!" Grif gawked, sitting against the wall opposite of Donut.

"Oh those'll grow back," Donut chirped.

"No…they won't," I replied.

"Uh Donut, where'd you hear that?" Simmons asked as he finished checking up on my bandages.

"Caboose told me, he said that when his pinky toe got shot it fell off and then Doc told him that he'd be fine and that it would grow back in a few weeks."

"You're getting information from Caboose?" Sarge asked.

"That's right," the voice in question perked up from around the corner, and in came Caboose and Tucker, the Blues who'd made it into the "future" with us.

"Wassup dogs," Tucker called out to us.

"Hey," Grif grumbled back.

"Have you guys seen Jenn? We've been trying to reach her on the radio but she's not responding. Did you guys do anything to her?" Tucker asked.

"Nope, haven't seen her," Simmons responded.

"Last time I saw her she and Red romeo were sitting together, doing whatever vile things teenagers do with one another," Sarge said.

"Seriously Sarge, grow up, we were just talking," I said, then turned back to Tucker, "She went out exploring about five or ten minutes ago, haven't seen her since then."

"Fine, come on Caboose, let's go find her," Tucker said, walking out of the shad and down the hill to go find her.

I was a bit relieved actually, not hearing from Jenn for a while really made me nervous. Who knew what kind of trouble she could into! But I caught myself thinking about it, why was I so completely obsessed with her personal safety? Then it was the instance a little while ago when she'd snapped at Tucker and then called me her boyfriend that came to mind. I couldn't help but feel as if she had my back and now I guess I was feeling the same way. So having Tucker and Caboose out trying to find her was settling to me.

"Tucker, just don't hit on her, she tends to be a little defensive about that sort of thing," I called out to him but got no response, just a nonchalant wave of irritation.

I chuckled at what Tucker must have been feeling, I'd basically taken the only other girl the series was going to have until Sister showed up. And I was on the other team. It was quite gratifying to basically piss off Tucker and do it by beating him at his own game. I settle back against the wall and looked out into the distant mountains, looking around in boredom. There wasn't much to see, there was hardly a piece of green around here, and nothing indicated that there was life out there. But one speck of dark green caught my eye. I hadn't noticed it before, and it was interesting to say the least. It was situated on a ridge at the midpoint of a mountain out a mile or two away. It hadn't been there before, which got me to worrying. Then a slight but definite flash of reflected light from that exact point got me to near panicking. It was gone, that little flash of green then that reflection sent me into overdrive. I settled back into the wall, consciously trying to make myself smaller so whoever or whatever it was that was watching us, or me, couldn't get a clear shot. I tried to calm down, taking deep breaths and counting to ten on each inhale and exhale. So it didn't do me any favors when I heard Jenn scream.

-Jenn-

Ahhh, I wish I could just swim in this spring forever!~ Probably to anyone else, this pool would be freezing cold and would make anyone hesitate to jump in but being the polar bear I was it felt amazing. A real shock to a point, but amazing nonetheless. Taking another deep breath, I dove under, grabbing for the rocking bottom and twisting around in the water. As I pulled at a rock, it slipped free of its hold, revealing a shiny piece of rock. I was almost out of breath so I planted my feet on the bottom and surged back up, throwing back my head as I did. I dove back under quickly, and I did not notice the sounds of armor clanking or the footsteps coming close.

Keeping a good hold on my breath, I pulled at the shiny object, tugging it free of its rocky prison. Somehow down here, a small crystal had formed. It was near clear from what I could tell, but it seemed to have a cerulean-turquoise center. I smiled at it, keeping my lips pressed closed. My victory was short-lived however as I looked up and I could see blurry soldier shaped reflections. I start to freak, wrapping my arms around my breasts. The boys! Oh my god, were they here?

I slowly made my way up to the water's surface, carefully peeking my way over the rocky edge. No one was here. I took a long sigh and relaxed against the shore, letting my top half be visible. I was so worried just then. I thought there for a moment that Caboose and Tucker had caught me naked….

"Jenn there you are!"

I looked up smiling as Tucker and Caboose walked in and promptly froze. My smile slid away and everything began buzzing in embarrassment and fear. My assets above the waist were in plain view for them like a movie, and _Tucker and Caboose_ got to see them.

I promptly screamed my lungs to nothing, sending the boys reeling and backing away.

Sinking as fast as I could back into the water, I started grabbing loose rocks and flinging them at the boys, trying to get them to back off and go away and make them stop looking at me and my full rack! A lot of them pinged by the ground near them or sailed over their shoulders but they got my message and retreated back into the hall that connected the base to the springs.

"Woah, stop fucking throwing rocks at us!" Tucker yelled. I picked a sharp-edged one and chucked it near the wall he was guarded by. It pinged right near his helmet and he retreated back with a quick 'Fuck me' thrown out.

"NO! GET OUT!" I screamed. "GET THE FUCK OUT!"

"I just have to say Jenn, for a girl with those kinds of boobs…..bow chicka bow –OW!" My well-aimed rock hit Tucker straight in the visor, getting him to back the fuck off and save his jokes for another time if any. I didn't break or crack it but he wasn't going to let it happen, and ran back up to the base. Caboose stayed however, barely peeking around the wall.

"Can I come in Rome?"

"No Caboose, get out so I can get modest" I firmly said, letting some anger drop into a words. Caboose is a sweetheart but I drew my lines somewhere. "Go with Tucker, just stay out!"

"But I can help you…." He pressed, peeking further out of the wall's edge. My patience and tolerance was at its frayed end. A vein in my head throbbed from the pressure of his insolence, and I snapped.

"NO! Get the hell out right now!" I yelled at him, poking my head over the shore of the spring and pointing a finger back up the hall. My other hand groped for a rock and I flung the grabbed object at the wall nearest Caboose, making him swing back into cover. Caboose hesitated for a moment behind his rock veil, as if he could figure out how to sneak in to help me, but left running up the hall in retreat.

"I thought you were a nice lady! Church was right, all ladies are mean ladies!" Caboose shouted as he ran, leaving me once more with the silence of the waterfalls around me.

I sighed, not happy with the final result of my offensive. I got Caboose to think differently of me, and Tucker now had a firm mental picture of my breasts, which was just perfect. I slumped up against the rocky shore of my spring, resting my head against the cool rocks. I should have known that my cold paradise down here would be shattered. I mean why the hell did I take a risk like getting butt naked when there were all guys up above? I'm an idiot….

Even though they still could come back, I swam my way to the waterfall streaming into the spring, putting my head and face underneath and letting the mineral water flow through freely. I felt like a total idiot, letting them see me naked.

Even over the roar of the waterfalls, I could hear the boy's voices filter in; one rose higher than the rest and my vote was that it was Zach's. My heart simultaneously thumped in my chest and my brain shrieked in fear and upset with the possibility of him seeing my naked. I slowly sunk underwater, and tried to disappear. Then I noticed that my shiny crystal still sat at the bottom. Without thinking I dove farther and took a tight grip on it, and surged back up to the surface.

When I did, everything went rigid again and I screamed.

-Zach-

I was scared, when I'd heard Jenn scream I thought she was being kidnapped or worse. The Reds all charged in the direction of the scream as I tried to get to my feet painfully. It hurt like hell to get to my feet, but I did it after some serious labor. I managed to walk slowly towards the direction the Reds and earlier the Blues had gone to see if Jenn was alright. The pain began fading away as I descended the slight bluff to where the Blues and Reds were arguing at the entrance to a cave of some kind. I pieced together that it was that spring we'd found and were using for water so I slid less-than-gracefully down to where the rest of the guys were standing.

"What is it?" I yelled, "Is Jenn okay?!"

"If you count okay as her being royally pissed off and throwing shit at me and Caboose then yeah, she's just peachy," Tucker growled.

"She what?" Sarge asked.

"We went out looking for her, ya know, because of her not answering her radio and all..."

"We already know that dipshit."

"Fine, we heard some noises in the cave where the spring is. We thought she was in there getting some water or something. So we went in and uh..."

"She was naked and very angry and threw things at me," Caboose said naïvely.

"She was swimming and we saw her. And she wasn't naked, just above the waist," Tucker responded.

I felt myself begin to simmer, I'd only known Jenn for a day, but we'd still gone from total strangers to boyfriend/girlfriend in that time. So I felt a massive pang of either jealousy or burning rage, or both as Tucker described catching Jenn in a less than modest position. So I partially didn't know what I was saying when I completely blew up on him.

"You what?!" I screamed, "You saw her naked?!"

"Dude calm down, it wasn't my fault!" Tucker said defensively.

"Oh bullshit! You had a pretty good idea what Jenn was doing and you went in anyway, without calling out to see if she wasn't decent! You're very lucky that I'm hurt right now or I'd be beating you senseless!"

"Oh yeah like I'm afraid of you," Tucker chuckled, making me take a step forward, my fists clenched.

"Whoa whoa, easy there romeo," Sarge grabbed my arms and tugged me back away from Tucker, "Now, let's all calm down and we wait for..."

"Where's Donut?"

"Oh God..." I groaned, seeing that Donut was no longer among us and I had a perfect idea where he had gone off to.

"DONUT!" came the screeching cry from the cave.

"There's Donut," Grif said matter-of-factly.

"Hey, cool crystal, where'd you get it?" Donut's voice called out.

"OUT!"

"Fine, fine, I just thought you'd like some girl talk," Donut said defensively, walking out of the cave to be stared at by all the members of the team that were present.

"Why aren't you going off on Donut huh? He saw her too," Tucker said angrily.

"She had this really cool crystal looking thing, it really made that cave brighten up. Really gave it the impression of being a luxury spa."

"That's why I'm not going off on Donut."

I cautiously stepped forward into the cave. A time like this I figured Jenn wouldn't be wanting to speak to just anyone, and I at least knew that you don't walk in on a girl who is effectively nude. So I walked up to the turn in the entrance where there was a definite glow that seemed to reflect up off of the water making a rippling effect of light on the walls.

"Jenn?" I called out, "You uh...you decent?"

"Oh shit," I heard quietly whispered, "No! Stay out! Give me a second."

"Alright. Just get dressed, there's something I need to tell you. It's important."

"What could be more important than half of the Reds and Blues seeing me...well...you know!"

How about being watched by a Freelancer? I thought but didn't say. Something like this needed to stay between the two of us, "I'll tell you when you're dressed and we can be discreet," I said quietly to her.

"Fine," she said.

I heard the sound of water splashing as she tried to get out and get her clothes on. She didn't take very long as I waited uncomfortably around the corner. It was a bit unsettling that she was effectively naked just yards from me only separated by a few feet and a corner. Apparently she thought the same way, as she rushed to get her suit on.

"Okay, I'm decent, or decent enough for you to come around that corner," she called out.

"Okay, you sure you won't throw a rock at me or anything like that?" I asked.

"Yes my hands are empty. Come on, before the guys try coming to see me themselves."

I rounded the corner with a slight limp from my knee being slightly stiff from standing against the wall. I instantly saw that she was only wearing her black under suit, which was very form-fitting, and I was wearing my own under suit so things weren't exactly comfortable for a little while. Her hair was soaking wet, as she hadn't really tried to dry it out or even had anything to dry it out with. So she sat down on a large flat rock next to the spring and began to wring her hair out herself. I carefully sat down across from her, and smiled as I saw the embarrassment in her eyes and face as she tried not to look me in the eye.

"You forgot about a towel didn't you?" I asked, making her smile a bit.

"Yeah, I just saw the water and well...I couldn't resist."

"It's alright, in the desert water doesn't stick around. So you'll be fine."

"What were you wanting to tell me about? Because if it's about Tucker and Caboose seeing me then-"

"No! No, it's not that, I blame them I don't blame you," I said, seeing relief wash over her.

"Good, I thought that with us being...ya know, and seeing as they saw me well...naked from the waist up I figured that you'd be angry," she whispered.

"I'm not, I was actually about to have a heart attack when you screamed."

She looked up to me, concern and curiosity etched into her features, "What do you mean? Did you think I was in trouble?"

"Something like that," I replied, then looked back to be sure we weren't being listened in on by the guys, "I saw something or someone in the hills watching us. I'm certain of it. I saw a shimmer of reflected light, like you see in games when a sniper is looking right at you. I thought it was Freelancer trying to kidnap you or something."

"Freelancer?!" she yelped, then kept her voice down, "You think there's a Freelancer watching us?"

"I don't think so, I know so. Whoever it is, is wearing dark green armor, and is waiting in those hills."

"What happens if they...you know attack us?" Jenn asked, fear now etching itself into her features.

"I don't know, but if what happened against O'Malley is a sign of our own skills, I'd say we'd be best off staying with the Reds and Blues. I don't think fighting a Freelancer would turn out very well for us."

"No, no it wouldn't."

"Hey what's that?" I asked, now noticing the crystal she held in her hand.

-Jenn-

Did he just really dive from keeping our asses safe from a Freelancer tailing us to the crystal still tucked tightly into my left hand? It was pointless trying to steer out of this so I opened my palm, letting the jewel shine unblocked. It looked different then when I saw it in the water, a little more clear than a thought, but it still was the same; an uncut fair size chunk of crystal with an easily visible turquoise center that seemed to move around like water. At first I thought the thing was the size of my thumb nail but now it looked like the size of two of them stacked.

"A crystal. I found it at the bottom of the spring, just stuck between rocks. It would have been a waste to leave it there"

"Any clue how it got there?" he asked, picking it up and looking through it. I shrugged, taking it back and flipping it around a bit.

"No clue how. Thought it looked smaller down there" I replied. The crystal sat flat on my palm again, and I watched the turquoise center move around, like it was sentient. It was really cool to say the least.

Then it started to turn grey, making it look foggy.

"What the hell?" I picked up the crystal, looking through the fogged middle, seeing now only grey. Why the hell was it turning-?

It turned black. The once brilliant turquoise middle turned to dark black, giving the illusion that it was actually an onyx. The gem seemed to grow heavier, as if burdened by the new inner colors it showed. Even though I was still chilling from my swim, the spot where it rested seemed to burn with frigid cold.

Something clicked just then, my mind going back to the one thing I showed a good interest to: Myths. It involved the story of Persephone and her dive into hell with the Ruler of Hell Hades, and how she was given a diamond that could warn of evil, or more specifically the Furies, when she came close to them. It was a gift from Hades, and tied her to him. The necklace is said to have been real, but I never found out any more about it, lacking larger interests in this foretelling jewel.

Suddenly it meant more to me.

Before thinking about what could happen, I rushed over to my armor, grabbed my pistol and undid the safety and pointed it toward the entrance, keeping an eye on the crystal tightly packed into my left palm again. It still seemed to burn through my undersuit with colds that you would think would match dry ice.

"Jenn, what the hell is your-"

"The crystal, you saw it turn black? Something tells me its warning us"

"Warning us about what?"

Footsteps could be heard echoing their way closer to us, leaving an eerie shiver to run up my spine. "About our visitor"

Keeping the pistol pointed at the opening, I looked back at the crystal, seeing if it would change back to turquoise or fade back into the smoky grey again. It still was firmly black, searing in my palm. What the hell was coming at us?

"Zach, you have your pistol?"

A gun cocking told me his answer. I had to smile but it was short-lived, seeing as though I calculated our chances here. We were without armor currently, seeing as though I couldn't race to put it on, and left only in our skin-tight black suits that gave no protection whatsoever. We also only had pistols, with low ammo and no additional clips anywhere. We would have to time our shots and we probably wouldn't get through armor shields. They were the Halo 2 pistols, downgraded from the heavy hitting ancestors they were based on. Not a lot of cover around here, and the springs provided little more than a pen to keep us trapped.

Yep we were fucked, just fresh meat ready for the slaughter.

The crystal seemed to heat up even hotter and I was forced to let it go, watching painfully as it hit the floor, echoing around us. The stone seemed to spit out steam almost, near shaking in its pitch black cloak. My eyes moved to the opening again, seeing shadows play games and tricks in the corners that were visible, taunting us to shoot prematurely and doom us to death. I swallowed the lump in my throat, trying to keep myself calm in the sudden anxiousness bubbling back to the surface. Not again will I have a panic attack. I will not.

Footsteps louder and cleared came closer, and both of us reflexed to perfect our aim at the open cavern offering our only way out. I shivered hard, my fingers shaking against the trigger of my gun. Why was it suddenly so damn cold? I nudged my foot closer to my crystal, finding little comfort in the gem's fiery temperature.

A thought quickly jumped into my head. Where the hell were the guys? Did they not notice we were in danger? Why the hell weren't we signaling for help?

I realized why when the figure hauntingly coming toward us stepped part of itself into visible sight, seeing dark green armor glint and sneer at us like a stalking animal. An SMG followed the leg in, clipped to the thigh of the same leg.

My crystal hit a fever pitch, and suddenly shuddered and died, keeping only surface heat and its black covers on. It knew my threat, our threat, was too close, and posed a threat even it couldn't predict.

What the hell were we going to do now?

-Zach-

I gripped my pistol tightly, trying extremely hard not to have it shake in my hand as I pointed it at the entrance to the open area we found ourselves in. Things weren't looking too good at all, especially when the same dark green I had seen earlier came into my line of sight. First came the sight of a leg, with SMG attached at the thigh, and then came the barrel of a sniper rifle. Then the rest of this Freelancer came around the side. His armor was colored green with lime green accents on the shoulders, wrists, and legs. The classic Mk VI helmet and gold visor looked unflinchingly at us as the rather large person looked right at us.

"Well, well, well, look who I've found all by themselves," the deep filtered voice of the Freelancer said out loud as they leaned casually against the rocky wall of the cave.

I felt Jenn's breath start to come in short pained gasps as she began to grow more and more afraid. I too was feeling my breaths come quick and shallow in fear of what would happen and what the Freelancer wanted. My head seemed to pound and buzz with the rapid beating of my heart as adrenaline coursed through my body. Jenn and I were in no position to fight, but we at least had our guns pointed at this guy, and he didn't, so that was something.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I asked, my voice slightly trembling.

"Good question, what do I want? Well, I don't know, apparently you're supposed to be something special. No one knows who you are or where you came from. So you tell me," the Freelancer said, shrugging and pushing out off of the wall and took a couple steps towards us, "But, I can tell you who you're now dealing with though, Oregon, Agent Oregon."

"A-a Freelancer?" Jenn stammered.

"That's right cutie," the Freelancer said, even his deep voice filter seemed to echo some manner of amusement in his voice.

"What do you want?" I said, taking offense to the way he seemed to eye Jenn through her skin tight under suit.

"Everything, who you are, where you came from, where you got that armor, and how you got here amongst these idiots," Oregon said, now tightening his grip on his weapon, "But I have time. And you'll give me everything I need to know in time, and then when I do..." he trailed off as he turned around, "Well, I'll just leave that to your imaginations."

He strode out confidently, and disappeared. Neither of us really had any intention of shooting him in the back, seeing as it wouldn't do anything but get us killed. And we were also too scared to even twitch our fingers if we wanted to. But once he left I felt the pistol seem to take on the weight of an elephant and I couldn't hold it much longer. My arm went limp as I let my guard drop and I tried to find the closest thing to sit on so I could regain my composure. I heard Jenn's breathing continue to go on rapidly as she stood there, her face pale, her pistol wobbling as she stood there completely stunned. I reached out, gently pulling the pistol to the ground and guided my hand to her shoulder and tied to coax her to sit down and calm her breathing before she had a panic attack.

"It's alright, he's gone," I whispered to her as she wrapped her arms around her side and shook slightly, "We're fine."

"He-he..." she stammered.

"He's gone, see? You're crystal, it's shining again."

I pointed her in the direction that the rather intriguing little crystal was now sitting, glowing dully, but growing in strength as the coast became that much clearer. I felt my own heart start to return to normal levels, and I regained my composure as Jenn reached down and grabbed the crystal and held it in one hand. She smiled as it glowed calmly in her palm and gained comfort from our proximity as she leaned into my shoulder. When she whispered to me her voice was calm, but concerned.

"What now?"


End file.
